


Patience And Time

by CallenAmakuni



Series: Patience And Time [1]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies), Frozen 2 (Disney Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Banter, Blood and Injury, Canon Compliant, Depression, Elsa Has Ice Powers (Disney), F/M, Falling In Love, Gen, Ice, Ice Powers, Love, Original Character(s), Revenge, Romance, Snow and Ice, Soul-Searching, Violence, War, Witch Hunters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:54:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 120,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22024420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallenAmakuni/pseuds/CallenAmakuni
Summary: "They didn't lie. We're at least two. And she's just a walk away from here."They're one of a kind: that's what Elsa was told about her powers. And she believed it. What if she hadn't been looking hard enough?A tale of a soldier and a queen.-First Arc Complete! Second Arc posted as the second part of the series -- check it out!
Relationships: Anna & Elsa (Disney), Anna/Kristoff (Disney), Elsa (Disney)/Original Male Character(s), Elsa/OC
Series: Patience And Time [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1848547
Comments: 70
Kudos: 81





	1. Patience

**Author's Note:**

> Author's note at the end!

* * *

_Thirteen years before The Great Thaw. Somewhere in England._

A few leaves shuffled with the gentle breeze that was slowly caressing the land. The sun's rays would still have to wait for a few hours before starting to shower on the still slumbering forest. The little town that neared it, whose inhabitants would not emerge from sleep before dawn, snored and slept all the same. Years back, everyone would already be out, working the hardwood they had chopped the day before, cutting and polishing every piece, earning their living through the veins of the material they bent to their will and transformed for decades. Now, the recent industrial prowess had sent a shameless surge of laziness throughout the entire country, and save for a few grumpy old men who fondly recalled the good ole' days during which every living soul was awake before even the Sun was, the people were quite happy with it.

Indeed, why wake up at four in the morning and cut down trees when the brand new railway allowed the merchandise to be delivered directly to the shop, at a much more comfortable hour? Many had practically jumped out of joy when the train station had finally been inaugurated.

However, sometimes in the middle of the night, a single silhouette usually found its way out of one of the little cozy houses, seemingly very careful not to make the tiniest noise that would, very unfortunately, draw the attention of the sleeping family inside. And this was one of those nights.

The shadowy figure, not standing at more than five feet, slowly closed the door and swiftly took a look at the village's main plaza, scanning the area for any early birds. The old veteran that lived several houses further had proved himself to be quite the nostalgic type after all. Seeing that the way was entirely free, the silhouette slipped out of town as fast as it could and disappeared in the heavy obscurity the trees were protecting from the dim moonlight.

Tiny footsteps troubled the silence that had befallen the majestic forest since lights had died out, their little plops only being heard by a few squirrels. Not too long after they were accompanied by heavy breathing, in which one could also feel a certain tinge of excitement. The tiny figure stopped every once in a while to scan the area around it with narrowed eyes. The obscurity would have prevented anyone from following it unless they were literally clinging to its back, but it absolutely wanted to make sure that no one actually did.

When it felt it had finally reached its destination, the silhouette slowly came to a halt and quickly hid in a bush overlooking a small square surrounded by thirty-feet high pines. Allowing its eyes to slowly adapt to whatever light they managed to perceive, it waited a few moments before coming out of its hiding place, hardly managing to contain an excited grin.

The shadow stood near the square's center, and after a last check—better safe than sorry after all—completely focused its gaze on its closed hand. And it stayed there, completely motionless. The weather was growing colder by the second, but the small figure wasn't bothered in the slightest.

After several minutes, a very faint light seemed to emerge from the tips of its fingers. The fidgety glimmer slowly grew to cover the whole tiny fist that was holding it, its moderate yet pure brilliance enveloping more and more of the surroundings with each second passing. It eventually grew large enough to fully light the silhouette's lower face, revealing very rosy cheeks and a wide smile. Then, slowly, it reached a little pointy nose, bright green and very opened eyes, and finally the entire visage of a young boy that couldn't be older than ten, whose traits were literally as bright from sheer thrill as the light he was apparently producing.

When the child felt that he could get comfortable, he very carefully untightened his fist, muttering a little _Wow_ when he saw what it held.

In the palm of his hand lay the microscopic statue of a wolf completely made of crystal ice, no bigger than a penny and very rough on the edges, but still large and pretty enough to make the little boy bounce up and down in glee right where he stood as soon as the shock dissipated enough for him to be able to move.

It was the first time he had managed to create something so sophisticated, something that could actually be associated with something other than _little ice thingy_. His sculptures had until then been as plain as tiny balls or triangles, as plain as sculpting with ice summoned from thin air could get.

This time he was truly seeing what his countless tries had brought up in him, what his frequent voyages were able to let him achieve. It wasn't really much, but to a child, the sensation of pride and accomplishment he was feeling was like no other.

He was the only one to know about his escapades, he hadn't talked about it with anyone. Only his mother was aware he even had those powers. Truth be told, he hadn’t been himself until he reached his fifth spring when he had noticed a thick layer of frost covering his fork. The way he had screamed had already not been very reassuring, and he later guessed his panicked look when he threw the utensil to his feet while violently standing up in the middle of a meal probably hadn't been of great help. He had shakily cried for a few hours in his mom's arms after that as she gently rocked him before she made him promise not to divulge his particularity to anyone, and especially not to his father.

He had always kept his promise, but as time passed, he had grown to find his abilities quite intriguing, and certainly very pleasing to look at. Interestingly enough, snow was quite a rare sight in that part of the land and having a personal little factory had provided him with some sense of wonder at times. He finally couldn't stop himself from escaping his house a few nights a week to learn more about his powers and how to control them. He even tried his hand at sculpture at one point and just continued practicing from then on.

And that night, he had finally made something as complicated as a wolf with his own little fingers.

Not bothering to keep his joy in check, he delicately put the absolutely magnificent work of exquisite art—at least it was to him—on the ground, and shot a sparkly furrow of snowflakes in the air, letting it bathe his face in its oddly comfortable and tingly warmth. He then expanded his arms on both sides and began running around with a happy laugh, the icy trails his hands left as they passed slowly making their way to the ground. His victorious grin only widened when he managed to inscribe his own name on a tree nearby with his frozen ink. He stopped there for a moment, contemplating the bumpy letters, and then took a look at his fingers, spinning them around and marveling at how glittering steam escaped from their tips, unhindered and thick like never before. He then approached his small wolf and put his hands forward while closing his eyes. When he opened them again, he was greeted by the sight of a snowy blanket.

Letting himself fall down with a laugh, he then crossed his legs, ran a hand through his deep red and swept-back hair, and observed the little icy footsteps that were now scattered around and the microscopic icicles that were nearly imperceptibly sticking out from the ground.

 _His_ icicles. Made from _his_ ice.

He let his shoulders slump with a satisfied sigh. He was very quickly adjusting to having those powers, and he couldn't be happier about it.

Fun time was nearly over though, but still, he had a moment to make one or two more statues before heading back home. As he began to concentrate once again however, a chill ran down his spine when he heard the subtle shuffle of bushes a few meters behind and the last voice he expected or wanted to hear at that time calling him in a shocked whisper. He slowly turned around, his eyes wide and hands steaming. A deadly silence lingered on, and eventually, the intruder uttered a few words.

"What… What is that?"

The boy's heart was pounding so loud that he was sure the sound was resonating with the trees around. His arms weakened and fell limply to his sides, twitching in anxiousness.

"You …You did all of this?"

The boy's head dropped. He struggled a bit but managed to make his face take a more composed expression.

_No sense in hiding it anymore._

He spoke in a shaky voice.

"Yes…Father."

* * *

_One year after The Great Thaw. A few miles away from Arendelle._

Summer had never been an institution for Anna. Spending her entire time inside the castle, she didn't really bother to check if it was hot enough to go out. But ever since the gates had been opened, she just discovered that she actually loved summer. The heat was quite insufferable at times, but the sound of the seagulls coming back North and the special 'smell' of summer—that only she could detect of course, no one else had a nose sensitive enough—had given the season a special place in her heart. Or maybe it was because summer was the time of the year that had witnessed both her and Elsa getting out of an alienating isolation and her meeting Kristoff.

She loved her new freedom to explore her kingdom and took every opportunity available to travel around in order for her to snatch glimpses of the land at all possible times and drag Arendelle's official Ice Deliverer along with her.

And he wasn't happy about that.

"…and why did you need me?" Kristoff huffed in an annoyed voice as they both crossed the now green and grassy wood they had crawled through a year before.

"You're telling me you don't want to see the castle when there's no snow around? I know that's not true," Anna answered with a strangely effective mix of a pout and a glare.

"I do Anna, _but_ I have work to do. Don't appoint me as Ice Deliverer if you're not letting me work when I have to… We can do this another day, when, you know, I'll have the time?"

Anna lifted her chin and squared her shoulders in her best impression of a regal manner. She then raised a finger as she spoke.

"I, for one, did not appoint you to be anything, Sir Kristoff. Elsa did. Besides, it is an honorary post. And two—" She raised a second finger at that. "—I want you to accompany me, and so it will be. I am a princess and you shall heed my commands. You should thank me for the honor I am bestowing upon you by my mere presence."

Kristoff smiled, catching her playful tone. "No, I won't."

"But you must."

"And what's going to make sure I do?"

"I will."

Kristoff narrowed his eyes and smirked as he ever so slightly tilted his body towards Anna. "Oh, how ominous. Her Highness knows that I could very well just take her on my shoulder and flee far, far away from the kingdom. She and I would completely vanish, never to be found again. And she would be begging for my mercy."

Said princess dramatically brought her palm to her mouth and exaggeratedly gasped. "Oh my...It is true that I am defenseless…However, you're forgetting that the Queen would never let her sister disappear. She would track you down and punish you for your crimes!"

"I wonder what the ransom for you would be," Kristoff said with a pensive look.

"I'll take a cupcake," Anna said a bit too quickly.

That got them to stop in their tracks. They both looked at each other awkwardly for a split second before Kristoff erupted in loud fits of laughter and Anna felt heat coming up to her face.

"Hey! It … just came ou—I'm hungry, okay?" she managed to mutter through her embarrassment.

Kristoff bent over and tears began to form in his eyes. "Oh, Anna… You're the best, you know that?" he blustered between a few ragged breaths.

After a while, he finally managed to calm himself and envelop Anna in a soft hug. "I'm sorry, it was just too much for me not to laugh," he said with a few chuckles.

Anna smiled and put her own arms across his back. She knew he had held no will to mock her. He never did. But it didn't mean that she couldn't make use of his slip-up. "Sooooo, are you coming with me? To make amends?" she said with a just-detached-enough tone, suppressing a laugh when she felt his back stiffen under her arms.

"All right… But just this time," he finally said with a sigh.

* * *

The ice palace Elsa had built in her liberating rush had become a renowned sight around the kingdom and the few neighboring lands. The strength of Elsa's emotions when erecting it apparently made it so it wouldn't melt even in the most heated days of summer, and it still stood proudly, perched on the North Mountain's side. The sun's rays reflecting in the crystal-clear construction gave it an aura it lacked during snow days, and their reverberation created a halo that seemed to swallow the entire building in its rainbow-like shine.

Anna sighed contentedly as she gazed from under the stairs upon the construction that her sister had—in her words—built in around seventy seconds and that every architect in the world would be completely unable to reproduce. A fact that Arendelle's queen drew no small amount of pride from.

"It is really something huh," she heard Kristoff say.

"Yeah…" she answered in a dreamy voice.

They took a seat on a rock nearby that allowed them to look down on the entire fjord and the valley at its East. They marveled at the sight and scooped closer to each other, Anna nuzzling her cheek against Kristoff's right shoulder as he leaned back on one hand.

"Regret coming here?" she asked with a smug grin after a few minutes of silent contemplation.

He responded by absentmindedly playing with a few of her crimson locks. "Not as much as I should."

A few hours passed; They talked about whatever crossed their minds—how Kristoff's hair was getting a bit too long for Anna's taste, or how Elsa had hilariously sent back home the first and thus far only suitor a few weeks earlier—and when the sun had already begun setting, they decided it was time to go back.

The wood was not as dark as they expected it to be, even though the sun was on the verge of disappearing under the horizon. Kristoff remained vigilant, throwing glances here and there with every step while holding Anna's hand as she walked beside him, her eyes no less alert than his.

"I'm sorry I kept us there much longer than I should have…" she whispered apologetically.

He gently ran his thumb over the back of her hand. "Don't apologize, I enjoyed it too. You actually saved me from a very boring day, so thank you," he answered while throwing a tender smile towards her. She mirrored the gesture with a light blush.

"No prob—"

The words died out in her throat when the cold of a metal blade hovered before her and the weight of a calloused hand covered her mouth. She was about to scream to Kristoff for help when she saw with horrified eyes that two masked figures had already surrounded him and that he wasn't in a much better position than her.

"You cry, you both die," a rough voice hissed into her ear.

They were brought down on their knees and forcefully gagged as a man walked out from behind a tree.

"What do we have here?" he calmly said. His mouth was contorted into a toothless grin.

He approached Anna and bent down. The princess leaned away as much as she could while Kristoff began to aggressively shift on his spot, seemingly trying to reach for her, some muffled grunts escaping from the tissue obstructing his mouth while his captors struggled to keep him in place.

The man who seemingly was the leader carefully examined Anna and motioned for his men to search Kristoff. After a few moments, he straightened his back with a sickening smile and clasped his hands. "Okay boys, it looks like we have found a very interesting piece right here."

Anna's already fast pulse seemed to quicken even more.

_What did THAT mean?_

"What about the guy?" one of Kristoff's captors asked.

"We'll take him too. Might bring some coin if sold to the right person."

Anna shot a panicked look at her companion, who only responded with a shallow gaze. He couldn't move and neither could she. And it was becoming increasingly difficult to control the dizziness she felt in her head. They were both brutally thrown against a nearby tree while their four kidnappers discussed.

Kristoff furiously tried to untie his hands while Anna continued to search for something, or hopefully someone, that could help them. But everything had gone so fast, she was very doubtful what was happening could even be noticed by anyone who wasn't spending their evenings in the woods. And if somehow, they managed to free themselves, there were still four of them to take out. She was quickly growing desperate.

_Elsa, please!_

Right at that moment, she caught a blue flash dashing across the forest's obscurity. A few muffled footsteps made their way to her ear, but they were too fast to be registered by the talking men in front of her.

"Alright, we should hit the road. This is the royal family we're talking about. They may begin to search for her way too early for my taste," the leader loudly said while rubbing his chin. Two of his henchmen nodded and began walking back to where they had left the couple.

As soon as they neared their latest prey, an arrow flew right between them and severed Kristoff's ties and freed his hand, sticking itself in the tree's bark with a swift whistle. While the two assailants froze in surprise, Kristoff quickly brought his fist to the first's face. He then immediately blocked the dagger that the second had unsheathed and swung at him and pushed as far from the tree as possible.

Anna couldn't do much but watch. And she was hardly believing what she did.

She was witnessing the very strange sight of a red-haired man that had appeared out of nowhere in a simple traveler's garb flipping one of their aggressors over with a sweep of his legs while throwing his elbow at the leader's face, knocking him out with lightning speed before he even had time to react. The other bandit tried to stand back up but was only able to get on his knees before he felt an unusually heavy foot violently twist his head in a very wrong direction. Crouching to dodge the third henchman's sword strike, the stranger brought his fist to his opponent's liver, knocking the wind out him and throwing his weapon from his hands from the sheer force of the blow. The following hook landed on his left jaw and brought the man down, unconscious. 

The newcomer then almost casually jogged towards where Kristoff struggled against his opponent. Fighting unarmed was a huge drawback and the stranger was already visibly going to have his stamina drop after a few dodges. Kristoff had already suffered a slight cut on his forearm but had a fiery determination in his eyes. He brought his knuckles up in an offensive stance and was about to rush into his enemy's range when he was suddenly interrupted by a calm voice with a strange accent.

"Over here, mate."

Before either of them had time to process the sentence, the stranger grabbed the last bandit from his shirt's collar and brutally rammed him to the ground while his target screeched. He then bent down and silenced the grunts with a frighteningly fast punch that landed with a horrifying crack. Kristoff let his tightened fists fall down to his sides and almost dozed off. However, he immediately seemed to snap back to reality.

"Anna!"

Running back to where she was still sitting, Kristoff hurriedly untied her and with shaking hands returned the hug that she gave him as soon as she was free. "Thank the spirits…" he managed to mutter as they fiercely clung to each other.

"Are you okay?" Anna asked in a small voice.

"Nothing major," he immediately answered while connecting his forehead to hers and putting a tender kiss on her lips.

After a few minutes of simply rejoicing in the fact that they still had each other, they suddenly remembered that they owed their safety to the red-headed stranger. They both turned around to see said man examining the bandits he had put down one by one, taking away any sharp instrument they held before tying them together as tightly as he could with the rope they used on Kristoff and Anna and pinning them to another tree.

When he got back up on his feet, he dusted his hands with a satisfied smile and turned to check up on the couple he had saved, only to find them walking towards him with their hands intertwined. Anna finally could have a good look at him, and he seemed in his mid-twenties. Light green eyes really stood out from his face along with a pointy nose. He swept back-hair allowed a single bang to cover a part of his tired-looking but fine visage, with relatively low cheekbones. Of a seemingly lean but sturdy build, he was wearing a fur cloak on top of a plain white shirt and wide deep brown trousers that were held by a blue belt extending quite far up his lower abdomen.

He probably wasn’t Arendellian. Anna would remember his face otherwise.

"Are you two in one piece?" he asked with the most caring tone he could manage. He had a strange accent. Not Arendellian indeed.

"Entirely," Kristoff answered with a warm smile.

"I don't know how we could ever thank you…" Anna said through teary eyes.

The stranger simply waved it off.

"Ah don't worry about that, princess. What matters is that you're safe and sound. I couldn't just pass by and leave you both into those bastards' hands now, could I?"

Kristoff and Anna exchanged knowing glances. "Would you care to follow us to our kingdom? We can see that you are appropriately rewarded. We'll also have to send a detachment to bring back those snakes," Anna said, the adrenaline in her blood now depleted, allowing her to speak in a calmer voice.

The stranger tipped his head. "Appreciate it but I was already headed towards Arendelle."

The glances exchanged were now a little more confused. "Umm...Well, it's..." Kristoff began.

"Uh… this…This is Arendelle…" Anna awkwardly finished while pointing to the ground.

The stranger's eyes slightly widened. He then seemed to talk to himself. "…this much?"

"What?"

"Oh no, never mind. I just hadn't realized I was already where I wanted to go. In that case, I'd gladly accompany you. But please, don't feel obliged to reward me. I did what I had to do, nothing more."

"Nonsense," Anna snorted.

She then dragged both Kristoff and their savior, grabbing his right hand in a hurry. Apart from feeling oddly cold, she noticed that it was slightly shaking, but didn't pay much attention to it on the spot.

As they got away from the attack's site, no one noticed the little water pool that had formed under a tree.

* * *

"So, I see that you already know me," Anna chirped a few minutes later. "In any case, this is—"

"Umm…" the stranger lifted his hands apologetically. "I don't know why you said that or if we already met, but I'm sorry, I actually don't know either of you…" He winced. The young woman raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"But you called me 'Princess' earlier…"

The man lightly flushed in embarrassment. "Oh… I didn't… That's just… the way I tal— Wait. You're an actual princess?" he loudly asked. Anna giggled and Kristoff smirked.

"Anna, First Princess of Arendelle," she introduced herself while tugging at her dress in a semi-formal bow.

The stranger seemed to ponder how to react, nervously settling for a light—and very awkward—curtesy bow as well. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Your Highness."

"Oh, drop the titles already," she chided with a flick of her wrist and an embarrassed look. "Call me Anna."

"As you wish… And how should I call Sir Prince of Arendelle?"

Kristoff and Anna both heavily blushed at that. The latter cast her gaze down while the former stuttered an answer. "Uh… Well… It's… I…"

The stranger chuckled lightly. "I see… Not official yet, huh? I think I'll just call you prince already."

"Or Kristoff. Probably Kristoff. Please call me Kristoff…" He whispered that last part. Anna visibly pouted.

"Hey! What does that mean?" 

The stranger heartily laughed. He seemed a lot younger to Anna when he did. Like he was someone else.

"And what about you?" Kristoff asked.

"Oh. You can call me Garret."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, thanks for checking this story out!
> 
> I started writing this a long time ago on FFN, and just got caught up with life and all, but now with the release of Frozen II (which will be integrated to the storyline, I want to respect canon as much as possible) and me having some free time again, I will continue what I started here too.
> 
> Warning now! I don't know if I'll ever cross the M rating barrier, but this story will explore some heavy themes not usually associated with Disney, but I'll be more specific once we delve into it more.
> 
> Please consider reviewing, you can't imagine how helpful reviews can be :)
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	2. Contact

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note at the end!

"Garret? That doesn't sound very… I mean it sounds like it's not from this region at all…" Anna remarked with a dumbfounded expression as they walked their way towards Arendelle.

"As am I," the name's owner explained. He immediately saw Anna's face light up and Kristoff wince. He shot the man a questioning look, only to receive an almost apologetic grimace that seemed to say one thing.

_Get ready._

As fast as lightning, the Princess burst in front of him with glittering eyes, folded hands and a plethora of questions.

"Ohmygodwheredoyoucomefromisitfarisitexoticdon'ttellmeit'sFranceohmygodiloveFrancetheyhavethoselittlecroissantsthingsthey'redeliciousandalsotheysingbeautifulsongssandIhadthiscousinthat…"

Garret couldn't hide his surprise.

 _Huh, this is a new feeling. Drowning in words,_ he told himself.

"Uh… Your Highn…" he tentatively said louder.

"Or maybe Greece or Italy or…" Anna suddenly inhaled, her traits bright as if she had just solved a centuries-old mystery. "You're from that land of freedom or whatever? I always wanted to see it for myself… Some say they have gigantic carts without horses, but, like, how stupid is that…?"

"Uh, yeah, they're called trai—" Garret couldn't help but try, but without much surprise, she didn't even hear him.

"Carts without horses! And what is it that drives the whole thing? Wind?"

He really didn't know what to do and simply stood there until his salvation came from Kristoff. "Anna!"

She turned around with a curious frown. "What?"

"You're scaring him," Kristoff said while motioning to where she was standing.

She turned back to see a very uncomfortable looking Garret leaning away from her as she heavily invaded on his personal ground. She was perched on her toes and towering over him at that point.

"Oh," she took a few steps back and sheepishly played with her hands while casting her gaze down. "I'm sorry…"

"N…No problem…" answered a very astonished but slightly chuckling Garret while he brought himself up.

"So… where are you from?" Anna asked with a more civil demeanor as they began walking once again.

"I actually hail from the Kingdom of Britain. The Eastern part," he finally said.

"Bri'en?" Kristoff questioningly whispered as he leaned towards Anna.

" _Britain_. That's England," she clarified with an even lower voice. "Explains the accent."

They probably thought he hadn’t heard them.

"Among other things," Garret said with just a tinge of amusement.

The couple jumped away from each other with sheepish looks. He laughed and dismissively waved his hand.

"Don't worry, I have gotten used to being notified of my particular way of talking. No offense taken."

The group then just followed their track, falling in a very awkward silence that was broken by Kristoff a few minutes later.

"Now that I think about it," he began. Garret turned his head to look at him with raised eyebrows. "I just realized. The way you fought… It was formidable. I mean, you managed to take out those bastards on your own!"

Garret brought his face back to the road. "You helped me, though…" he said, sighing as if he had been expecting such a question.

"I more or less distracted one of them. Wasn't much…"

"Yeah, Kristoff's right!" Anna added. "You just burst in and then you were like punch here punch there and they were all on the ground just in a few seconds. Pretty amazing if you ask me."

"This kind of ability is not very common…" Kristoff pensively said.

"Well, what can I say? I was always skilled in brawling… Had to protect my lunch from thugs and all…" Garret tentatively tried to explain, but his words felt hollow to his own ears.

"Nah, doesn't just come down to that…" Kristoff thought out loud while scratching his chin.

"My whole… background… has given me some special abilities, I guess…"

"Does that background explain why you're leaning more on your right leg than your left?" Anna innocently asked.

Both Garret's and Kristoff's eyes brutally widened.

"You're hurt?" Anna's companion panicked, already scolding himself for not paying enough attention.

Garret hastily brought his hands up. "No… No, I assure you. I'm fine, they didn't even graze me."

"Then what are you talking about, Anna?"

"Um… It's just that we walked through a little mud earlier, and his footprints were not evenly deep in the soil. Figured that would be it…" she said in a gradually lower voice.

Few times in his life had Garret been truly impressed by a simple observation. "That's…" he collected his thoughts. "That eye of yours is one of the keenest I've had the chance to meet. You're actually the first to notice in a long time," he said with a chuckle.

Anna lightly blushed at the praise while Kristoff obliviously raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it turns out you're right. I do rely more on my right leg…"

"And that's because of something in particular?"

Garret's face fell at her question. Being brought back to it never felt good.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to be rude," she immediately apologized.

Garret remained mute for a few seconds.

_Well, she did notice. Maybe not all of it, but still..._

"Don't worry about it… It was a requirement of my previous job…"

"Oh…" Anna didn't know if she was fine with him answering. His expression was one of sad nostalgia.

"What job asks of you to hurt your own leg?"

Anna turned around. This time it had been Kristoff's turn to speak.

"I never said I hurt it myself."

"What do you mean?"

"The army," she responded in Garret's stead.

He knew his face was wearing a shaky smile. He readjusted his cloak over his shoulders and brought his expression back in check. "Exactly."

Another silence and a tense atmosphere ensued. Sensing that it was mainly because of him, Garret tried to lighten the mood. "So… You said you were the First Princess. Is your father the king?"

"Oh no," Anna answered with a knowing but small smile. "Arendelle's ruler is a queen. I am her sister."

Garret was mildly surprised but eventually just nodded in understanding.

"You don't know much about our country do you?" Kristoff remarked.

"To be fair, I spend a lot of time on the road and don't really seem to get my mind around the fact that knowing a few things about where I am is probably for the best. And that's when I know where I am. I still have to work on that…"

"Feel free to ask anything you want," Anna suggested.

"Since you so kindly offer, while we're at it, what can you tell me about the queen?"

"Well, she's a bit young so she still has to appropriately get the hang of a few things, but most people in the kingdom agree to say that she's doing marvelously well."

"Oh, age is not the most important factor in wisdom for royalty you know. If she's just as cunning as you, I'm sure she'll do fine. Our queen is very young compared to her father when he had begun to rule, but she's a lot better at it than he was. Besides you have to define young… You said that she was your sister, so she couldn't be that much older than you. I'm guessing you're around twenty, so what does that make her? Thirty-five, forty at most?"

Anna snorted while Kristoff smirked.

"That's around it, yeah," the latter sarcastically said. Anna playfully jabbed his shoulder while she giggled.

Garret raised an eyebrow with a little amused smile. "What, is she thirty? Doesn't change much…"

"She's twenty-two, Garret," Anna clarified.

Surprise replaced amusement on his face. "What? But that's… It's…"

"I did say that she was young…"

"Yeah you said young but… Twenty-two?" Garret tried to accentuate his point. "Accomplished rulers of that age are very rare!"

"She does her best…" Anna fondly added.

Garret whistled out of admiration.

_That young… Her parents must have prepared her early._

He then realized something and addressed Anna in a less than joyous tone. "But that means that your parents…?"

Anna and Kristoff's traits visibly saddened.

"Gone. A long time ago," the princess almost whispered.

_Way to lighten the mood, genius._

"I'm sorry," Garret simply stated, his expression now one of sincere sympathy. He could empathize with that. It wasn’t easy.

"Thank you," she responded with a grateful smile. She then immediately proceeded to regain her enthusiasm. "Anyway, back to Elsa!"

"Elsa?"

"My sister. That's her name."

"Oh. Understood."

"She's very protective of our people; she cares for everyone and you'd be surprised to see how much. Then there's, of course, her special condition…" she teased with a smirk. 

"Special condition?"

"Well, she is nicknamed the Snow Queen…"

Her smile grew even bigger when she saw his eyes slightly narrow.

"I'm sorry, I hadn't realized that she was that type of person…"

"Oh no, silly you," she giggled. "Elsa has special powers. Ice magic or something like that. She can create and control snow and ice at will."

She certainly caught through her proud grin how Garret's eyes widened or how he lightly swayed at her statement. What she was mistaken about, however, was the cause of such a stunned look.

* * *

_ATCHUUUU_

"Bless you, your Majesty," Kai said.

Elsa wiped her nose with a handkerchief that immediately dissolved as soon as it left her hand. "Thank you."

Upon seeing his queen tiredly explore the pages of a dusty law book, the butler expressed his worries once again. "Your Majesty, I deem it wise to consider giving yourself one or two more days to fully recover from this cold you're suffering," he insisted.

Elsa sighed. "I really appreciate your concern, Kai, but I really need to get this done as soon as possible. Besides I'm already feeling well. It just tickles a little now and then."

Ever since she felt ill on Anna's birthday a dozen days before, Elsa hadn't been able to concentrate much on her tasks. And her sister pinning her to her bed for almost a week had made it incredibly hard for her to tackle some urgent matters.

As soon as she felt that she would be able to walk out of her room without summoning an entire army of little snowbabies, she had rushed-as in walked very awkwardly-to her working place. She had promised herself to go over all the laws that guided the kingdom's life for the last centuries and had been horrified with some of the most ancient examples, swearing to abrogate them hastily. They weren't applied anymore, but a bit of solemnity never hurt anyone. The prospect of making her people as content as possible was a drive that she couldn't contain, and she wouldn't risk a single mistreatment.

The castle's library, her makeshift office, was also something that kept her duty as important as it was for her. In her younger days, she would always enter the immense gallery as soon as she could, and just stay there, going through several books in a few hours, reading adventure novels, learning new languages, checking on the world's state. It had been a shelter for her during the many years of complete solitude she went through, and thus constantly reminded her of how just the tiniest anchor could make a difference between order and chaos. She wanted to be a beacon to her people as much as Anna and the library had been for her.

Elsa smiled fondly at the memory of a few precious stories she had read in the room–the German fairy tales and the Arthurian legend had been her favorites-snapping back her attention to the many scrolls and volumes before her with a sigh.

She then heard a light cough and noticed that Kai was still standing beside her.

"Oh, excuse me, I completely forgot to answer," she hurriedly said while straightening her position on her seat. "Yes, yes, of course, the castle will be open at the celebration. Everyone is welcome. Anna wouldn't have it any other way at all," she said with a quiet chuckle.

The castle's celebrations had become a tradition at that point. Every small festival was an occasion in which the whole town gathered in the palace's outer court and Elsa gave a speech, often punctuated by Anna launching a few rounds of applause, much to her sister's dismay.

"We'll have a normal reception scheme. I'm thinking around five hundred plates. You can add more if you feel the need arises. Two main courses, one or two fruit baskets per table, and of course as much chocolate as possible, thank you."

Kai lightly bowed. "Very well, Your Majesty."

Elsa smiled at the retreating silhouette of the royal butler before bringing her eyes back to her desk.

A few hours later, she stretched with a tired yawn, lifting her groggy eyes to the window before her while she rested her cheek on her palm. Anna had said that she wouldn't come back too late and it was now well past sunset. While her sister had already been away from home for much longer time periods, Elsa couldn't help but slightly worry, even though she knew Kristoff was with her. She probably should ask if she was back.

_I'm done working for the day anyway._

Elsa exited the gigantic library, only to run into the castle's security advisor, who formally bowed as soon as they reached each other.

"Honor to you, Your Majesty," he saluted.

"Sir Jürden," she greeted back with her hands clasped before her and a slight tilt of her head. "I was just coming to see you."

"The same could be said for me, excellency. I wanted to request a quick audience," he said.

"I am listening."

"I am here for two things. First, I figured you would like to be notified that Princess Anna and Sir Kristoff have been spotted approaching the city..."

Elsa visibly relaxed.

_Wonderful._

"…and that they are accompanied by an unidentified man."

She tensed right back up. "Is... that concerning?"

"Not at the moment, they just seem to walk together. But I wouldn't advise against a little suspicion."

"Right. You said you had something else to tell me?"

"Yes, Milady. I know that you value your people the most, but we cannot completely disregard your own safety. I have personally made a selection of the city's finest officers…"

He interrupted himself when he saw Elsa lift her hand.

"If this is about the personal guard, you can save yourself the effort. I already told the Captain that I don't need it."

"With all due respect, Milady…"

"I am fully capable of defending myself."

"I am aware of that fact. However, for a person of your importance, not having a personal escort can be seen as a weakness by other countries. Especially when considering some aspects…"

Elsa raised an eyebrow. "What aspects?"

The poor man gulped under her calm stare.

"Your Majesty, I pray that I will not appear as rude as I think I will, but the fact that you are… _a woman_ … has a lot to do with the opinion other kingdoms have of you. And in situations that will not allow you to use your powers, a personal guard would certainly be an asset for… appearances, at least."

He brought his eyes to meet hers and wasn't even surprised to find a cold gaze fixated on him. "I hope you understand that this is absolutely not my own opinion. You know how highly I think of you. However, until they realize how misguided they are, we cannot ignore the fact that foreigners do not think like us…"

"I know, Sir Jürden."

He bowed again, this time out of sadness. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty."

Elsa sighed.

_He wasn't the most tactful about it, but he sees the hard truth._

"I'll… I'll give it a thought. But I'm not making any promises. You are dismissed."

"Very well. Thank you, Milady."

As the man walked away, Elsa tiredly massaged her temples.

"Your Majesty? Princess Anna is back," one the maids announced.

"I'm coming," Elsa answered.

* * *

Garret had been strangely quiet for what remained of the trip but was completely baffled by the city's picturesque charm once they reached it. The small town was buzzing with activity even at that quite late hour, with people going out admiring the stars and the aurora that was forecast for the night. A few children ran past the walking trio as they entered the main street.

"I am a frost dragon, my breath should have frozen you!"

"It'd have to get past my legendary sword!" they heard them shout enthusiastically.

"You didn't tell me it was going to be this…" Garret began in a low voice.

"Loud?"

"… Lively. I was going to say lively."

"I guess we forgot," Anna happily chirped.

They quickly traversed the town and eventually reached the castle. Garret was getting a little too nervous for his own comfort. He stuck his hands in his pockets to hide their itchy shaking.

As soon as they passed the gates, Anna broke into a full sprint towards the building's main doors, jumping in the arms of a very pale but stunningly beautiful platinum-blonde woman that had just exited its hall. Garret stopped in his tracks when he caught her name.

"Oh Elsa, you can't imagine how happy I am to see you!" Anna almost cried, burying her face in her sister's hair.

"And I, you, Anna," the latter replied, slightly surprised but evidently not bothered at all by the sudden display of affection.

"You won't believe what happened today!" the sprightly princess said as she stepped back, keeping her hands on Elsa's shoulders.

The queen-because apparently that was her-covered her mouth and lightly laughed. "What happened today?"

"Kristoff and I almost got kidnapped!" Anna finally said with a tone that was absolutely not matching the nature of the news she was breaking to her sister.

"Oh, real—wait, _what?"_

"Yeah, we were just coming back from your castle and then there were these creepy guys with no teeth and they tied us to a tree and they talked about selling Kristoff and me and we were like OhMyGod how do we get out of this…"

Anna was interrupted by her sister's panicked look. "Are you being serious?"

"Well, yeah," she said with an almost dismissive shrug.

"How did you…"

"It's thanks to Mister Hero just right there," Anna excitedly pointed towards where Garret was shifting awkwardly on his spot next to Kristoff, just down the stairs. "He kicked their butts and rescued us."

"He saved you?" Elsa asked in a low voice. Her sister nodded and was almost immediately brought into a fierce hug by the queen.

Elsa's eyes, at first disbelievingly wide, slowly began to water, and the temperature ever so slightly dropped around her. Garret wavered.

_Anna hadn't been joking._

"I almost lost you…" she whimpered.

"But everything's okay now, sis'," Anna soothed.

"And what about the kidnappers?"

"They're all unconscious, tied to a tree. He took their weapons and assured that they would be out cold for a few days without exterior care," Anna answered. "We can send some guys to collect them as soon as you want."

The two broke apart a few moments later. Elsa then quickly checked up on Kristoff, enveloping him too in a much quicker but still relieved hug, before turning her attention to the mysterious stranger.

Garret was avoiding her direct gaze as much as possible but relaxed when he saw that she was giving him the warmest smile he had ever seen. She slowly walked until she was just two feet away from him and very regally bowed.

"I cannot thank you enough for the service you've done for my family and for my kingdom. Your deed will not be forgotten, I assure you of it, Sir…"

"Garret, Your Majesty."

The queen's eyes lit up in the same fashion her sister's did a few hours before, her mouth imperceptibly contorting into a small excited grin. "Oh, you're British, aren't you?"

The man was now more impressed than intimidated. This far from his homeland, few people ever pinpointed his origin.

"I am."

"Well, Sir Garret, in order for me to express my deepest gratitude, I will give you whatever you wish for. Name your reward, and it shall be yours," Elsa stated proudly.

Garret was finding it increasingly harder to focus. Her big glittering navy-blue eyes not leaving his were certainly not helping. He shook his head and lifted his hands.

"Milady, it is an honor. But I already told your sister that I don't ask for a reward. I wouldn't consider myself human if I didn't help someone in such a delicate situation. I simply did what I had to do."

He almost took his sentence back when he saw the queen's face slightly fall in disappointment.

"Don't belittle yourself, buddy," Kristoff said with a knowing grin. "You deserve at least a little something."

"I assure you, I am fine."

"You know what?" Anna barged into the conversation. "I think he's not going to hear anything of it for now. So, Garret, I suggest that you stay here for the next few days; you could attend the Summer celebration with us while we think of something?"

Elsa happily clasped her hands. "That is actually a wonderful idea. What do you say, Sir Garret?"

"I… Uh…"

_Damn those eyes._

"I'll… consider the offer. But please Milady, just call me Garret."

"Very well, Garret. Of course, we would be happy to provide you with the necessary accommodation," Elsa added as she pointed towards the palace.

 _Not a good idea to stay that close for too long,_ he thought as he tried to dig his fists further into his pockets as much as he could. He was feeling much more comfortable around her than when he was introduced, but the itchy sensation in his hands was becoming more and more noticeable. The last thing he wanted was for steam to leak out of his pocket.

"Oh, that's very kind of you, but I think I'll just take a room at the inn. I don't want to intrude."

Anna pouted. "You sure about that?"

"Don't worry princess, I promise to come as soon as I can."

"Or I can come to fetch you! I'll show you around," she squeaked.

Kristoff smirked. "She's gonna do it, you know." 

"Well, it's not like she is going to take no for an answer?" Garret said with a small smile.

"No. No, she won't."

The men laughed when they felt Anna's tiny hands angrily slap their shoulders. Garret then quickly bid his farewell and walked towards the castle's gates.

Elsa's gaze followed the retreating man until he disappeared while Anna and Kristoff entered the main hall.

He had seemed very kind at first, but she had started to feel a very strange sensation when staring into his eyes. She brought her palms up and sighed.

The last time her fingers had started emitting steam on their own had been a long time ago. But then again, that day was the first real emotional rush she had had in a year.

She finally shook her head and joined the couple inside, dissolving the forming mist as she walked.

* * *

Garret let himself fall with a grunt on a chair in the middle of the room he had rented. That day was the first time he had fought in a while, but he had managed to keep everything under control without much problem. However, his mind was occupied with other thoughts.

_They didn't lie. We're at least two. And she's just a walk away from here._

As much as discovering that she had powers was a slap to the face, the fact that she didn't seem bothered by them was what really intrigued him.

He didn't know whether he wanted to tell her or not. She was the first he had ever met. And if she had reacted the same as himself, she was probably also aware that something was off.

The man took his left hand out of his pocket and examined the tiny ice crystals protruding from its back.

Suppressing them was going to be a _lot_ more complicated with her around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This one is just a follow-up to the previous chapter (well, duh) in terms of exposition. We should get down to business in the next one.
> 
> Please consider reviewing to point out anything you think I should look into, be it positive or negative! Thanks in advance!
> 
> Also, about the title, I realized that a Destiny Rifle was named just like that... Yay.
> 
> Just so that it's clear, it comes from Tolstoy, a quote that is pretty easy to find. So... yeah.


	3. Soldier

_A field._

_A crowd._

_A deafening noise._

_A single voice._

_A smell._

_A rage._

Garret suddenly awoke with a start, his bulging eyes not able to see much in the heavy obscurity the room was plunged into. The very first thing he did was to quickly check his arms for any icy protuberances. When he was certain there weren't any, he released a sigh. Sweat had never been a problem for the man; it was quite the opposite. His body never got hot enough for water to be necessary in order to cool it. However, and because Mother Nature was such a nice gal, he had his own—very annoying—version. During periods of extreme stress, he was always bothered by the temperature lowering around him and he became used to finding little frozen droplets in his immediate surroundings. He had therefore developed quite a reflex, always scanning the area to hopefully find and melt those little witnesses of his mental state after intense experiences.

He sat up and immediately began to thoroughly examine the mattress he had just spent his night on. He found a few of said droplets and got rid of them right away. He then looked outside to see the sun peek at the horizon, its first light dawning on Arendelle's bay.

"Hello there," he uselessly greeted. A little habit he had unwillingly inherited from his mother.

He brought his hands to his face and stayed motionless, breathing steadily. A few moments later, he let his arms fall to his knees.

"… and may you watch over me for another day," he finished what he had started in his thoughts, smacking his legs while getting up.

The man quickly washed himself and put on his clothes. He then made his way downstairs, only to be welcomed by the innkeeper—a plump man with kind eyes and a very impressive beard.

"Good morning, lad."

"Hello," Garret answered while taking a seat on a simple stool near the counter.

"Oh, you're looking a lot better than yesterday. I told you some sleep would help."

Garret simply smiled as he recalled his uneasy expression when he had entered the inn the previous evening and ordered a room in a hurry. He had been too preoccupied with his hands to really worry about his looks and had probably been a sore sight at the time.

"Yeah. It's been several days since the last time I slept in a real bed."

The innkeeper shot him a quizzical look but didn't insist much.

"You're up pretty early, though…" he said. "I was certain someone as tired as you were would have slept a few more hours at least."

"Always woke up with the sun. Always will."

"Ah, how poetic… You're being quite the philosopher. Is that something that helps you think through the mysteries of life?"

Garret lightly laughed. "Exactly."

The innkeeper shrugged at that. "Anyway. Feeling hungry?"

"Starving, actually. What do you have for me?"

"I could scramble some eggs if you want."

"Aye, that sounds good."

"How many? Two, three?"

Garret raised an eyebrow. "How big are they?" he asked.

His host quickly disappeared into the kitchen to retrieve a sample. Garret chuckled when he caught sight of it.

"Do I look like a bloody kid to you? Make it eight of those. With some bread and milk, please."

The innkeeper heartily laughed. "Starving you are! If only every customer ate like you… You'd never hear of unhappy innkeepers ever again."

"Strangely enough, I always hear that when I order food," Garret added with a smile.

Moments later, he was devouring his meal under the very amused stare of the bearded man. The latter was busying himself with cleaning some tankards when he spoke. "So, I guess you're here for the summer celebration, aren't you?"

Garret stopped stuffing things in his mouth and blinked a few times.

_Oh yeah, they talked about something like that yesterday._

He forced the content of his mouth down his throat and readied his answer.

"Um, to be honest, I'm just wandering around. But I heard that there might something interesting to witness in the region now."

"Guess 'interesting' is one way to call it," the innkeeper snorted. "Does that mean you're attending?"

"I think so," Garret said with a shrug. He took another mouthful of eggs before resuming. "A couple of weeks back, I landed in a little kingdom. Seems like I arrived one day too late to participate in what they called the… Lanterns' Fest…?" He stopped eating for a moment, trying to remember the name. "The Night Of—something that had to do with lanterns. They looked pretty excited about it, must have been pretty. So, I guess I have to compensate for that. I would be gutted if I missed another of those."

"I'm quite positive you won't be disappointed," the inn's owner affirmed.

"What is this festival for?" Garret asked while taking a long swig from his mug.

"We're celebrating the Great Thaw for the first time."

Garret's face took a questioning expression that the bearded man caught over the tankard that was being held in front of him.

"You should probably know more about where you spend your nights, lad…" he said with a little grin.

Garret put down the mug. "I also hear that a lot…"

"Anyway, it may come as a bit shocking to you, but our queen has ice powers…"

_Oh, believe me, I noticed._

Garret waited for him to continue, but he saw the man fidgeting on his spot in anticipation of his reaction. He simply motioned with his hand for his host to go on, causing a surprised look to creep up on the innkeeper's features.

"Well, that's the best I've ever seen anyone take the news."

"I'm very level-headed."

"If you say so…" The innkeeper kept an eyebrow raised. "Anyhow, ice powers… Yes, and no one was aware she even had them before her coronation last year."

That got Garret's full attention. "Wait, you didn't know?"

"Except her parents and maybe some people working at the castle, nobody did, not even her sister. And on that night, without any warning, the queen fled and left the kingdom to freeze. The whole city was brought down and even the water around the port solidified; the boats were immobilized."

 _All right, I definitely didn't expect that,_ Garret thought.

"We still don't know why or how, but we are sure of one thing: she didn't do it on purpose."

Garret snapped out of his short-lived torpor. "And why's that?"

"Because a few days later, she came back and brought summer with her. I'm not familiar with all the details, but apparently it was Princess Anna and Sir Kristoff that sought after her the whole time."

Apparently, Garret's thinking was showing on his face.

"Not so level-headed now, eh," the bearded man said smugly, a grin growing larger and larger on his lips.

"I… I guess not…" Garret answered. "That's quite a tough trial to go through, though... Must have been hard for them."

"It was. But it'll take something tougher to put our princesses down," the innkeeper said, his eyes shining with pride.

Garret lightly smiled at that. He sighed, put the tankard on the counter and took his pouch out from his pocket, before seeing the innkeeper's palm wave before him.

"Breakfast is included in the room's price."

"You sure about that? I probably ate enough for three…"

"Don't make me regret saying it," the man replied with a grin.

Garret smiled again. "Thanks for the meal." He saluted and got out of the inn. He never felt cold, but the wind was something that could become annoying with a cloak. He brought his heavy garment closer to his body as soon as he heard the door lock behind him. He took a few steps and observed the city's port wake up, several boats leaving the shallow waters, heading towards their preferred fishing grounds.

The morning air was something that always made Garret relax. Coupled with the peace and quiet the early hour usually inferred, he had come to find dawn to be the ideal time to take a walk. Right now, he had quite a few things to process, and walking had always helped him clear his mind.

_She froze the entire kingdom. And melted all of the ice afterward. Alone._

Garret didn't know whether to be impressed or scared with that particular piece of information. In any case, if it were to be true—and he couldn't see why it wouldn't be—she was a lot more powerful than he was; that much was clear.

 _Probably explains how she masters them so easily_ , he said to himself as he stopped in front of a giant frozen fountain, its ice clear as if it was still running water. He brought his hand to touch the cold structure, marveling at its flawless crystals interlacing without a single fracture, without any impurity. No ice he had ever seen matched their transparency, their solidity. Even the best of his own creations paled in comparison.

Garret lightly chuckled.

 _Not a single imperfection._ _And here I thought I was being special._

Releasing a heavy sigh, the man then suddenly caught a glimpse of an arrow flying at the other end of the street, near the castle's lower court. He panicked at first, but quickly calmed down when he realized that it had landed on a practice target.

 _Trainees_ , he thought, smirking at his own reaction. He stopped to think for a few seconds. _Well, it wouldn't hurt to take a look._

* * *

Elsa was usually up quite early, but very rarely did she roam the palace's alleyways at that hour.

That lingering sensation in her hands had made it very difficult to sleep peacefully. They weren't hurting, but they felt odd. A bothersome type of odd; they felt too _warm_. Anna had said that they seemed as cold as usual to her, but the feeling hadn't left her limbs for the entire night. She guessed that learning that her sister and her future brother-in-law had practically been taken away the day before was something that she still had to wrap her psyche around, making her body react consequently. But a little voice in the back of her mind also wondered if it had something to do with the man that had saved Anna and Kristoff.

_Garret, was it?_

After Anna had narrated the twists and turns of their trip, she figured she'd have a few questions for the man. She also made sure she was to be notified if he left the city.

_Well, that's for later._

Not really knowing what to do, she waited for dawn to make her way towards the library once again. For the second time in two days, she almost bumped with a start into the closest person the kingdom had to a chief military officer.

"Sir Jürden!" she shrieked in surprise. The man also seemed quite startled at first but was quick to regain his composure. He formally greeted her, as per usual.

"Excuse me, Milady. I didn't see you arrive. I hardly ever meet anyone on the way to the training grounds when it is this early in the morning, so I tend to be less alert."

Elsa took a few seconds to steady her breath, placing her hand over her chest. She slowly managed to cool her racing heart and greet the man back.

"Please, don't apologize. It was but a small accident," she said while waving her hand.

Jürden lightly bowed his head and continued on his track. There was something she wanted to talk to him about.

"While you're here…" she called back. He turned around immediately.

"Yes, Your Majesty?"

"I would like you to assign a few people for Anna and Kristoff's protection. I don't want them to be alone at any given time. Not until we have this situation sorted out."

"Very well."

"And about those criminals Sir Garret subdued…"

"I sent a detachment as soon as I received the orders," Jürden immediately replied. "They were found at the exact same location we were told, unconscious and completely unable to move had they emerged. They are currently jailed downstairs. We'll interrogate them when they wake up, and they'll be ready for trial."

"Good."

This was going to be the first time Elsa would have to judge actual criminals in her Court. She usually was just summoned to settle benign conflicts—matters of inheritance and land ownership most of the time.

"Was there something else?"

Elsa was silent for a second.

"Do you mind if I accompany you? I would like to attend this morning's session."

Jürden was a bit taken aback, but eventually nodded. That was definitely a first, but she didn't have much to do. The attack on her own sister had awakened a sudden interest in her kingdom's defense.

They walked their way to the little square just behind the stables that hosted the current and future city's guards' training grounds and barracks, getting quite a view over the location from the top of the stairs that led down from the castle.

The place was quite simple in its design, with two large gates giving access to the town's main avenue, and walls that towered over several buildings built out of hard grey stone and wooden logs. Upon arriving, they saw a few recruits honing their skills at bows and crossbows by firing at marked targets, as well as a little group of trainees practicing their swordsmanship on the far right of the surprisingly clean surface.

Everything seemed normal to her. Everything, except for the red-headed man walking on the side with his hands folded behind his back.

* * *

Garret smiled as he strode through the lines of young men trading blows and readying their shots. The scene brought back some memories. They were already up at that hour, but it didn't surprise him. He had himself been forced to wake up much earlier during his schooling years.

He stopped and shook his head when he noticed one of the trainees grabbing an arrow. He slowly approached him.

"Umm, excuse me?" he began, trying to suppress a smile.

The young man suspiciously eyed him. He probably was around twenty.

"What do you want?"

"It's just… What is it with the quiver?" Garret asked, hardly containing a chuckle.

"I draw the arrows from it."

"That's what you do with it. The question is: why is it strapped to your back?"

"Why do you even ask?" the recruit fired with narrowed eyes.

Garret raised an eyebrow with a grin. He quickly scanned the area around him and found some crates sitting back against a corner not far from where he stood. He dragged one with his right foot and left it just in front of the still unmoving young man before crossing his arms. "What's your name?"

The latter hesitated for a moment. "Sturn. What do you want?"

"All right, Sturn. I'm Garret. Now, try to jump over this."

The trainee didn't budge. "I may be young, but I know how to jump. Don't go all 'I'm a veteran' when you're just a few years older. And why would I even listen to you? I don't know you…"

Garret shrugged. "Let's just say that I'm a nice guy who wants to help."

He then saw a few others gather behind their comrade. "Trouble, Sturn?"

"Nope, he's just getting a lesson," Garret explained, lifting his hands. "You too," he added while pointing towards another recruit amongst the small crowd who had a back-tied quiver.

Sturn slowly neared the crate, his eyes not leaving Garret's. He then pushed on his legs for a quick jump and he landed smoothly on the other side. He brought his eyes back up to what he probably thought—and for all accounts, actually— was an annoying stranger's face, only to find it contorted into an amused grin.

"What are you smiling at? I did it."

Garret didn't speak; he simply motioned with his head to the ground while raising an eyebrow. Sturn followed his gaze and was quite surprised to see a dozen arrows scattered on the cold stone. He quickly checked his quiver and found himself looking into an empty wooden box.

"And that—" Garret's voice started, bringing all eyes back to him, "—is why you always put your quiver near your hip. Preferably on your guiding hand's side. Try it again."

Sturn’s eyes narrowed even further, the brown of his irises blending with the black of his eyelashes.

"Please? I promise I'm not here to mock anybody," Garret specified.

The trainee heard a few whispers behind him but he—pretty reluctantly—switched his configuration and approached the crate once again. He did as he was asked and jumped, and this time not a single arrow left the container. Garret wore a more sympathetic expression.

Receiving a lesson this important was primordial. He couldn’t make fun of him. He knew how humiliating that could be.

"See? This is extremely helpful if you ever have to cross hard terrain, just like the mountains up there. Also, you never pull on the string for more than a few seconds at a time—don't you raise your eyebrows at me, I saw you do it earlier. You'll tire your arms pretty quickly that way, and your aim becomes shaky a lot faster than you might think."

Garret then redirected his gaze towards another trainee.

"You. You were working on your stationary fire, weren't you?"

The poor kid—he seemed a little younger than the others, probably fifteen—gulped and brought his bow closer to his chest. He then feverishly nodded.

_At least his quiver's in the right place._

"Right. Can you show me how you fire three arrows in a row as quickly as you can?"

The boy advanced with shaking legs and readied his practice weapon, spreading his knees. He then unleashed three projectiles at a respectable speed. The first hit near the center mark; the second was a little more deviated but still close enough to be considered acceptable. However, the last had landed near the targets' outer circle's limit. The boy breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not bad," Garret complimented. "Not bad at all. Your name?"

"A… Argod, Sir."

"You did pretty well, Argod," Garret continued as he stood near him. He was towering over the poor young man, but his eyes held a caring tint that was caught by every recruit present. He then lifted a single finger. "But! You could do better."

Garret extended his hand in front of him. "May I?" The boy handed him his bow and three arrows with trembling hands.

"I didn't realize I looked this scary…" Garret said with a chuckle. Argod heavily blushed and stepped back, receiving a complicit tap on the shoulder and some cheers from his friends.

"He's just very shy, sir," one of them explained. "He finds strangers intimidating."

"All right, I'll take that," Garret responded with a shrug. "Anyway, when you know you're not going to move, you'd rather not stay on your feet."

He brought himself down on his right knee as he talked, taking a few looks here and there to see quite an assembly circling around him, intently watching his moves. He then planted two of the arrows in the ground right next to him, grinning when he saw some stares turn confused.

"They are easier to reach this way. Makes handling them faster and thus increases your firing rate."

To prove his point, he slowly concentrated, waiting for his pulse to resonate in his ears. He brought his fingers to tug on the string, feeling its texture and weight. The bow's frame was light, he would have to be careful not to break it. Breathing slowly and steadily, he waited a few seconds for his pulse to lower enough and drum in his ears, and as soon as he felt that he could get it in between two heartbeats, he drew the string to his face and shot the first arrow. Before the projectile's head even reached its target, Garret's hand had already flown back and quickly came to pull on the bow a second time. Before anyone had time to process anything, three wooden pieces were sticking out from the target's center.

Garret dusted his pants as well as the hem of his cloak and handed back the training bow to its owner with a calm demeanor.

"I know that you'll hardly ever use bows. But just in case, that's how you conciliate both speed and accuracy."

One or two whistles were heard all over the small crowd. A few of the trainees went to examine the target as if to verify that the arrows embedded in the leathered surface were not fake, while another group immediately took some steps back from Garret with curious eyes. A few of them were whispering. Garret managed to escape a few moments later by sending them to try out those shots themselves..

"Excuse me, mister?" An older guard approached him, visibly alerted by some recruits who were tailing him closely. "I don't believe you are a member of the Guard. I'm afraid I will have to ask you to leave," he said with severe eyes, pointing towards the main gate.

Garret lifted his hands with a sheepish look.

"Underst—"

His words were suddenly interrupted by a very melodious voice.

"He's with me."

He briskly brought his eyes up to see the Queen going through the last steps of the stairs coming down from the castle. She was not alone, however. A man in a suit that was easily a few decades their elder was walking beside her.

The guard saluted sharply. "Very well, Your Majesty." He walked past Garret, giving him another hard look. It had been a long time since last he had been scolded so.

Garret heaved a sigh of relief.

"Good morning, Sir Garret," the Queen softly said. "I would be obliged if you didn't disturb the course of their training."

He winced at her formality, bowing before her. "Your Majesty. I'm sorry I trespassed into restricted ground. I should have watched myself." 

She returned the gesture with a lot more grace, while her escort extended a hand. "Apology accepted. Sir Garret, this is Sir Jürden. He is my main counselor concerning security matters and the kingdom's highest-ranking officer. Sir Jürden, this is Sir Garret, and I'm sure you already know who he is."

Garret accepted the offered handshake, slightly annoyed by how abundantly the word 'Sir' had been used in her last phrase. "My pleasure," he said.

"Likewise. We really appreciate you handling those bandits. Only the gods know what would have happened to those two otherwise."

"Ah, pay it no mind. I'm just happy I helped. Sorry again about the barging."

Jürden lightly tilted his head in acknowledgment, bowed to excuse himself and immediately went ahead to supervise the training as he usually did.

"So… I see that you fancy yourself a teacher," Elsa chortled as soon as he was out of earshot.

_She's not mad?_

"Uh, yeah, you saw that…" Garret nervously scratched the back of his head. "Just gave them a bit of advice. I really shouldn't have; they probably would have learned all of it a little later anyway."

Elsa lightly smiled while taking a look at the small forming regiment before her.

"They're doing fine," Garret said. "And they're still young. Still have plenty of time to grow. I just hope they'll never have to actually put what they learned to use."

Elsa silently continued to sweep the barracks. She probably knew the world was not as optimistic—she was a queen. As naïve as she could have been, she was trained to expect everything. But he guessed she couldn't do much but pray for the better.

"It seems the military life suited you, then?" she asked.

Garret sighed. "Princess Anna told you?"

"Everything she could," Elsa chuckled.

Garret collected his thoughts. "Well, I guess. My entire family signed up in the army, you know? My father, his father, and his father before him… They were all officers."

"And you?"

"Oh, no, not me. I never actually reached such high rankings."

Garret's gaze turned a little sad. He tried to tone down the sound of irony in his voice. "I was just a soldier."

They then both fell into a lingering silence.

The Queen furrowed her brows. She had remembered something.

However, at the exact same time she opened her mouth to speak again, Argod appeared out of nowhere next to Garret, lightly tugging on the ride side of his cloak with a small crossbow hanging from his other hand.

"S…Sir?"

Garret slightly crouched down. It felt a lot like he was talking to a ten-year-old and not to a near fully-grown adult, but he dismissed the thought.

"Yes?"

"It's… Because… You showed us… And…" Argod started. He stopped, taking his time to calm his breath, and made another attempt. "I don't know why, but I just can't ever seem to get this thing to fire straight. I thought you might tell me what's wrong?"

"Your aim definitely looked fine to me… Are you sure it's not the crossbow's fault?" Garret confusedly asked.

The boy shrugged to signify that he wasn't. Garret carefully took the weapon from his hands and slowly searched for any anomaly he could detect, with Elsa silently watching him. All crossbows were far from being similar in construction, but the base was pretty much the same. After a while, he finally saw what he thought caused the odd firing and muttered an audible 'Ah' and a little chuckle. He lowered the tool on the ground and reached inside his cloak.

He pulled his dagger out and slowly reached inside the crossbow's insides with the knife's tip, turning it around a few times. A tiny metallic sound was heard when a screw fell on the ground, Garret bending over to grab it.

"This is what was making you go bonkers. Not a good idea to fire two bolts at the same time. It tends to mess with the release of the string," he said with an amused tone as Argod blushed and embarrassedly scratched his chin. "I did the exact same thing when I was younger."

Garret carefully placed the screw back in place and flipped the knife in his hand, turning its blade towards the sky. He abruptly gave little blows using the bottom of the grip until he heard a little click. He then returned the weapon to Argod with a small smile.

"Done."

The boy bowed and profusely thanked him before going back to his comrades. Garret whirled his head back towards Elsa.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. Were you going to say something?"

She waited a few seconds before she answered.

"Yes, actually. Would you please walk with me?"

Garret nodded and closely followed her outside the barracks and into the city's main street. Soon enough, they reached the fountain he had stopped by earlier. The man quickly threw a glance towards his hands; no ice block to be seen. For now.

He then saw Elsa graze the ice she had produced with her fingers. Her expression was unreadable.

"It may come as redundant to you, but I really need you to know how grateful I am for what you did yesterday," she ushered.

"I… I really don't know what to say, Your Majesty. I would have done that for anyone who was in the same dire position."

Elsa smiled.

"You know, a lot of people think that Anna is a little too careless for a Princess when they meet her for the first time…" she started.

Garret chuckled at that. "I kind of understand why they would say that, but I definitely saw that she was a lot smarter than what they may give her credit for."

"Certainly," she continued. "Especially her memory. She remembers pretty much everything that happens before her with incredible precision. And yesterday, while she was telling me about how you rescued her, a little detail highly intrigued me."

Elsa's stare had slowly turned grave as she spoke, and Garret was becoming increasingly anxious.

_I don't like how those eyes are looking right now._

"She very clearly recalled that Kristoff was freed by an arrow that cut down his ties… But, as far as she remembered, you had no bow with you."

_Oh._

"Care to explain?"

_Stupid, stupid, stupid! Should have seen it coming…_

He lifted his eyes to see Elsa sitting on the fountain's edge with her arms crossed, quietly trying to decipher his expression with her glare. He lowered his gaze to her feet, and only then did he remark that her shoes were shining in quite an unusual fashion.

_They're made of ice? The entire dress?! And of course, this is the moment I choose to notice..._

Garret shook his head and coughed a few times. His heart was pounding hard against his chest.

_Maybe I should tell her?_

He brought his eyes to meet hers once again. "It's…"

_Okay, just have to tell her. With a bit of luck, she won't faint and I won't look like I just murdered the queen._

"It… It was broken during the fight. Beyond fixing. I just threw it," he finally said, disgusted at himself for lying once again. 

Elsa did not move, settling for a less abrasive stare as she kept insistently scanning Garret's face. He knew those stares. He knew the thinking that went behind them. She had expected two different reactions beforehand: she thought he would either be completely taken aback and revolted at her accusations or try to kill her. But now that he almost looked sheepish, she was stuck in a rut. Her traits slightly softened. The fact that he refused to sleep in the castle and that he had another weapon the entire time and didn't make use of it was enough proof that he was not ill-willed.

But she apparently had to make things clear.

"I'm sorry I appeared a bit ruthless here, but I really had to make sure you were no danger… "

Garret breathed a sigh of relief. "I understand."

"Just a little warning though. I am sure you know of my powers," she added while playing with a snowflake in between her fingers. "We don't usually have many strangers in our city. If I ever discover that you intend on harming anyone here…"

"… I think I got the picture," the man completed.

He took a few seconds to think, steeled himself, and made a few steps back. He didn't know why he suddenly felt the urge to do what he was going to do, but the idea of the queen being suspicious of him bothered him a little too much. He didn't like to look so melodramatic, but he only knew the one way to make his intentions clear. Being a queen, she would have to believe him, right?

Elsa's eyes followed him, and her confusion didn't get any better when he crouched down on one knee. He then brought his dagger in front of his heart in a reverse grip, its tip pointing towards the ground, while his other hand covered the soft end of the tool's pommel to subtly hide the seal it housed. He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again, his face had gained a very serious expression.

There was one thing he had learned from his time with the higher-ups. One single useful thing.

"I hereby swear…" Garret started, "… that I, Garret of Linton, never have brought and never will bring harm to any inhabitant of this land. If I ever betray this promise, let Infortune and Despair follow each of my steps for my entire life. _Auspicium Melioris Aevi_."

He then hit his chest once with the flat part of the knife. He slowly got up, putting the blade back in his coat and leaving an utterly dumbfounded expression on Elsa's features.

"That…" she muttered as she brought a hand to her chest in what surely was an attempt to calm her racing heart. "Was that an oath?"

Garret lifted an eyebrow. "Yes," he simply answered.

"But… but why?"

As ruler, she probably knew how important oaths had become during the last centuries in Western Europe, especially for someone who lived a military life.

"You wanted to make sure I wouldn't hurt anyone out there. Well, now you're sure," he clarified with an almost casual tone.

Elsa was at a complete loss of words.

She suddenly felt very self-conscious under Garret's tranquil stare. She abruptly brought her hands to her face, shaking it a bit before uttering a relieved sigh. Standing up to her feet, she then gave Garret a soft smile, one that was much more sincere than the ones he had been receiving since they ran into one another several minutes earlier.

"I know how much of a commitment that is. Thank you, Garret. Truly."

Garret returned the gesture with a slight bow and a smile. She had finally dropped the accolade.

He was in turn about to speak when they both heard Anna's voice call out from afar. They both turned their heads in time to catch the very strange sight of the Princess of Arendelle running towards them—skipping was a much more accurate word—while trying to put on her left shoe, her tiara jumping sideways in front of her face with each hop. Kristoff was following behind at a more normal pace with his arm hugging a pretty large reindeer that carried a waving snowman. Two guards were walking beside him.

 _Okay, making ice move with such precision at a distance?_ _She is definitely more powerful than I am,_ Garret thought, hardly believing what his eyes were showing him.

Anna swiftly jumped in her sister's arms as soon as she reached her.

"Good morning, sis'!"

"Hello, Anna," the latter amusedly greeted.

When she was finished with Elsa, the Princess whirled around and brought a very surprised Garret into another hug.

"Good morning, Garret!"

"H… Hi, A… Anna…" he awkwardly stuttered as she released him. Such familiarity was very unsettling for him.

_Is she like this with every stranger that walks around here?_

"Hey, Kristoff," Garret then greeted her companion.

"How are you doing, bud? Meet Sven. He's been putting up with me since I was a kid. Aaaaaaand…"

"And I am Olaf!" Garret heard a little voice chirp right under him. He then felt a little weight on his right leg. Casting his gaze down, he was met by the sight of that same snowman attached to him. "Hey!"

"Umm… Is everyone just going to sit there while there's a snowman glued to me? Your Majesty, is this your doing?"

Elsa hid her mouth with her hand and lightly laughed. "I'm afraid not. Truthfully, I guess it is to an extent, but Olaf has been completely independent of my own will since I created him."

Garret didn't know if he would be able to take that one as casually as everything else. He almost dropped on his knees right there and then.

_She can create… life?_

Anna suddenly grabbed his arm, dragging him towards the city's main plaza.

"Come on, G! I owe you a tour. See you later, Elsa!"

She waved her hand as they left, Anna darting away so fast Garret almost lost his fotting trying to follow her.

Elsa's eyes slightly narrowed when recollecting what he had brought out of his pocket. It had looked like a medium-sized ceremonial knife. The ornate instrument was polished and clean. She had discerned a very unusual seal etched into its wooden grip, just under its small guard; sprawling in diamond-shaped cords, it held in its center three golden crowns surrounded by a red cotton belt. Feeling the oddest sense of déjà-vu, she had resisted the urge to take it from his hands and examine the blade more closely. She already had seen such a symbol somewhere else, but she just couldn't remember where or when.

Just before she began to walk back to the castle, she threw one last fleeting glance at the soldier's back while slowly caressing her lightly steaming hands.

* * *

The day passed in a blur for Elsa. The sheer quantity of cases she had to take care of would have already discouraged most of her peers, but she always thought that work would make her days feel shorter, especially when Anna and Kristoff weren't around. When she felt the chore had become too boring to bear, she decided to spend a few hours searching the library for something that would remind her of that seal, releasing a heavy sigh when she realized it meant going through an entire aisle.

After flipping through a lot more pages than she could count, she was on the verge of abandoning when she noticed a very banal looking volume sitting at the end of the shelf she was currently examining.

"I very much hope this is all worth it," she murmured while dusting its thick cover. " 'Signs and Signatures: Grand Orders of Europe'. Huh… must be pretty old."

As soon as she opened the front page, she suddenly felt extremely happy she didn't just leave in frustration. There, among a few others, laid the exact same seal she couldn't seem to identify, even though the colors had faded with time compared to its real-life wooden counterpart. She immediately jumped to the associated page and started reading in a hurry.

"This seal is a token given during the First Bath to any future member of The Royal Order of Saint George. It can be etched on an object of the candidate's choice, or, following the traditional procedure, engraved into the pommel of the ceremonial dagger associated with that particular candidate's accolade."

 _Accolade?_ she interrupted herself. Where did she already hear that word?

"It is a symbol of the newly acquired social status for the future member of the Order. Upon mere presentation, the owner is immune to any form of arrest and incarceration by the British non-martial forces of law until martial court is summoned and has the highest priority for royal audiences." Elsa continued. "It also allows him to take command of any given military regimen of less than fifty men, holding the responsibility of their actions as his own. The seal, however, doesn't signify the member's rank in said Order.'" The page stopped there without giving any other information. She read it again just in case she had missed out on something before lowering the heavy volume in disappointment. Nothing more.

There was however one little snippet that rang a bell, and she suddenly snapped her head towards another book she had browsed sooner. She hurriedly went back to a particular page, and there she found it.

"Ah, there it is! Grand Royal Order of Saint George," she said as she stood up in pure excitement.

"An evolution of the Grand Order of the Bath," she read. "This organization is a British order of knighthood that rewards senior military officers or lower-ranked soldiers that distinguished themselves with a remarkable feat of arms. The members are known as the Knight Commanders of Britain and are amongst the most respected officers of the military hierarchy. They are directly following the Sovereign's orders, who was, at its creation, His Majesty King George I."

Elsa slowly let herself slump back on her chair with widening eyes, the book falling in an almost comical way on the table in front of her.

 _He's a knight? An actual knight?_ she thought while quickly putting back a strand of hair behind her ear.

She couldn't believe it. She had threatened one of the most important officers of the British army. And he had let her go with it.

He even seemed _kind_ to her.

_Then again, he didn't tell me who he was. Well, he sort of did… but not entirely. Or maybe he expected me to know once I saw the seal? My God, what if he reports back…_

Her thoughts raced in her mind while she paced in the room, biting her right thumb's nail and hugging herself closely with her left arm.

She had always figured the real-life knights she read about were big and bearded brutes with suits or noble middle-aged men in shining armor. She figured a few of them could be younger.

_Not this young._

Her anxious thinking was interrupted by Kai opening the library's door and peeking inside.

"Milady, Princess Anna is back. She requested both dinner and your presence."

"I… I'm coming right away."

She lightly tapped both her cheeks with her palms.

_Okay, Elsa. Won't help to panic. Just apologize and give him whatever reparation he'll ask for and everything will be all right._

Elsa then made her way to the dining room, slightly rejoicing when she caught a glimpse of Anna. She however immediately tensed up and bit her lower lip when she saw that Garret was sitting near Kristoff a little further, with his right hand supporting his head up.

_Why did she have to invite him?_

He was apparently laughing with his neighbor about something Anna had done during the day, but straightened up and took a more serious expression as soon as he realized that she had entered the room.

"Hey, Elsa… Oh, there's so much we have to tell you!" Anna began. "But I'd rather we ate first if it's fine with you."

Elsa smiled at her sister's antics. She hadn't gotten so worked up over something since her own birthday, and it made her marvel at how she could make an entire day’s worth of stories with a simple touristic visit. She took her usual seat and waited for a moment, staring into her trembling and once again steaming hands.

 _Is it stress that causes this? It would make sense_ , she thought.

Elsa took a long breath to calm herself down and stop the uncontrolled leak escaping her fingers.

"Bon appetit," she finally said while lightly grabbing her own fork and picking something up from her plate. She couldn’t see what, her mind was focused on other issues.

Anna and Kristoff were already halfway through their own meals. They muttered through their fully filled mouths, "Tchu you tchu!", earning a few quiet chuckles from Garret.

By the way he was holding his fork, he didn’t look like well-versed in table manners. He was military—maybe they didn’t bother with frivolities such as those.

Anna started telling their day's adventures shortly after, and while everyone listened, Elsa couldn't stop herself from subtly peeking at their guest every now and then.

 _I hardly believe this is what a knight looks like_ , she thought as said knight laughed along with the others.

She kept her gaze locked onto him for an instant too much, however, and wasn't able to retract in time when Garret's eyes turned around to meet hers. Her face flushing in evident embarrassment, she immediately brought her attention back to her plate.

The rest of the meal left Elsa in a very uncomfortable state as she shifted awkwardly while everyone else spoke fondly of the day. They all suddenly heard a little bump on Garret's side of the table, and Elsa noticed that he was very worriedly looking at his hand under the wooden surface.

"Everything okay, G?" Kristoff asked.

"Yes," Garret said. "I just think I ate a little too fast. Nothing major, really. I just have to get some fresh air and I should be fine," he said while getting up. "Where could I go?" he politely demanded.

Anna directed him towards the outer gardens. He quickly thanked her and hurriedly got out of the room.

Elsa didn't know why he said that, but she very clearly noticed that he had eaten at the same pace as herself. Seeing that she wouldn't have many more occasions to apologize to him without having people around, she decided to go after him.

Anna shot her a quizzical look. "Where are you going?"

"Just making sure that he's fine."

The princess raised an eyebrow at that but didn't pry.

When she neared the door, Elsa tried to imagine what she could say in her mind, quickly abandoning the idea when she realized she'd surely just forget everything as soon as she'd open her mouth. She delicately pushed one of the last wooden doors, and before she could call out her guest's name, she sensed something that she hardly ever felt.

_Cold?_

She slowly advanced with a dumbfounded expression, her hands caressing the walls where some tiny snowflake patterns were beginning to show up. Very quickly, she reached a point where frozen icicles were appearing on the ground. Just as she was about to turn around the last corner, she caught an almost inaudible whisper coming from the small pond near the garden's center. She pressed her back against the wall and listened carefully.

"…knew it wasn't a good idea…"

She very slowly let her eyes poke out from her hiding place. Garret was sitting near the water pool, his right hand firmly gripping his left wrist. She heard him groan in pain a few times. He slightly stirred, bringing his left side into the moonlight. Elsa's eyes widened further than they ever did and she felt her legs starting to shake. Garret's left hand was completely covered in ice blocks, a few of them sharp enough to look completely transparent.

_What... What is..._

The man concentrated for a while and seemingly struggled to disintegrate the protuberances. Elsa noticed that the ice on the walls was resorbing as he worked and soon all traces of crystal had completely vanished. When he was done, Garret let his limb fall to his side and very carefully pulled on his pants' left leg, slowly unveiling his own.

For whatever she had been prepared for, what Elsa witnessed right at that moment was something that she never even dared to dream she would one day see.

Instead of the rosy mix of muscle, bone, nerves, and flesh she was expecting, Elsa was greeted by the sight of another massive ice block; the entire piece took the shape of a human leg from the knee down, and was linked to Garret's quadriceps through a frozen joint. Judging from the scars on the stump, the iced prosthesis had apparently replaced his original limb quite some time before. Her hand shot to her mouth, covering the gasp that she was about to release. Her own legs effectively faltered at that exact moment, and she slowly dropped to the ground with a thud, causing Garret's head to rapidly snap. She brought herself back up as fast as she could.

"Is someone there?" the man loudly asked as he stood, doing the best he could not to alter his voice from the pain. He hid his frozen leg under his pants once again. "You know, if you're here for the people inside, you'll have to get through me anyway. Laet's just save ourselves some time and get this over with." He cocked his arm back, ready for anything.

Was that his first reflex? Protecting complete strangers?

Getting over the initial shock, Elsa gathered her thoughts.

"G… Garret?" she softly called while slowly appearing from behind the wall. The look of utter disbelief that appeared in his eyes as he let his arm fall made her heart sink. "It's me, don't worry," she tried to say in the most soothing tone she could manage when she saw him take a step back.

"Your…Your Majesty… Did you see…?"

Elsa very slowly nodded, her gaze not leaving his eyes.

_Please don't run, please don't run, please don't run._

"Don't panic, Garret. Please. I… I'm not afraid…" she pleaded in a trembling voice.

Garret let his shoulders slump down. He released a heavy sigh and nodded. He then frowned and closed his eyes, awaiting her next words. She knew that asking after seeing what she just did was a bit unnecessary, but she wanted to make sure.

"Are you… Are you like me, Garret?" Elsa demanded through the sound of her pounding heart. She brought her hands to her chest. "Do you have powers like mine?"

Silence had never seemed so deafening to Elsa before. A faint gust of wind traversed the garden, playing with the nearby bushes' leaves. The sound of a wave crashing itself into the castle's outer rampart echoed through the empty space, accompanied by a seagull's squark. After what felt like an eternity of two children of ice standing in front of each other, awaiting the inevitable, Garret opened his eyes and spoke in a low voice.

"Yes… Elsa."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third Chapter here. Well, this is a long one. Don't think I'll keep them this long from now on.
> 
> Auspicium Melioris Aevi = Token Of a Better Age
> 
> As I said, this will explore themes related to war and conflict. And Frozen II will happen. Will it be exactly like the movie? I don't think so, they did a few things I'd change, and I don't see the relevance of just rehashing FII's story. We'll see. 
> 
> That wraps it for now. See you next time.
> 
> Peace,  
> CalAm.


	4. Queen

Kristoff had always known that Anna's personality could be very substantially summarized as a bundle of energy that explodes at the tiniest stimulus. He never got to know how tiny those stimuli actually had to be, but he was having a live demonstration of pure Anna-isms as she had begun bouncing on her seat as soon as her sister had left the room, her eyes wide open while she squealed in glee.

"Didyasee? Didyasee?" she cheerfully asked, swiftly getting on her feet. She came tugging at her companion's collar, dangling his head back and forth.

"I- I gu-guess I d-didn't…?" the poor man managed to express through the heavy shaking his brain was suffering.

Anna quickly brought her arms to her sides, letting an excited breath escape from her chest while her eyes followed her sister's trail. "She went after him!"

"Ah… Yeah, great. Someone alert the entire kingdom," Kristoff muttered while massaging his sore neck. "I'm all for being always happy and stuff, but I think we can spare everyone the news."

"You don't understand!" she answered while whirling around to face him. "She was totally giving him those little sneak peeks when we were eating, and then he caught her and she… My gosh, this is probably the first time I've ever seen Elsa blush! She never loses her composure like she did tonight."

She was interrupted by Kristoff suddenly grabbing her shoulders. "Okay, Anna, don't lose your head. That's normal. She's going to be fine. Breathe slowly."

The princess couldn't hide a little smile at Kristoff's playful tone as she yanked his hands away, but she needed to make him comprehend how long she had been waiting for something like that to happen.

"There's definitely something…"

"Anna…"

"… she was like 'oh I'll have to make sure he's all right'…"

"Anna!" Kristoff loudly called, causing her to abruptly stop her train of thought. "What is this about?"

"I think that she's falling for Garret!"

He winced. "Umm Anna…?"

"Whaaaat?" she whined.

"You have to calm down a bit. I don't really think that's what happened..."

"Come on, Kristoff! You've got to believe—"

"No, I'm being serious here, Anna," he said with finality as he brought his arms to her shoulders once again, his eyes now a lot more focused. The princess let all the excitement that she had built up fall flat. Kristoff never pulled the serious talks for no reason. "Your sister isn't a giddy school girl anymore." He paused to quickly reconsider that last bit. "If she ever was one, to begin with… This is Elsa we're talking about. Anyway, the point is, I think that there is something with Garret."

Anna's eyes slightly widened. "What do you mean?"

"Didn't you see how both Garret and Elsa seem to be bothered by something whenever they're close to each other? I noticed yesterday when they first met, this morning when they were talking and again a little earlier… Elsa's hands were steaming every time."

"What?"

"Yeah, she even took a few seconds to stop whatever was happening to her before we started eating."

Anna couldn't believe she missed something so obvious about her sister. She'd ordinarily be the very first to worry. "Are you sure you weren't dreaming?" she asked in a low voice.

"Pretty much."

"The stew was probably a little too hot for you…."

Kristoff rolled his eyes. "I'm certain of what I saw, okay?"

Anna heavily sighed and took a few moments to think, biting her thumb's nail. "She didn't talk to me about it… What do you think causes it?"

Kristoff cast his gaze to the ground and let his shoulders lightly slump down. "Stress? Just raw emotion? Elsa being herself? Who knows."

"It could be her emotions? If there's one thing we learned from last year, it's that her powers go crazy whenever she's not feeling it... That'd connect the dots with what I told you earlier, can it?" Anna said, her eyes lighting up again.

Kristoff shrugged. "Could be... But probably not in the way you're thinking… I'd say that she knows something we don't."

"About Garret? How? They hardly talked to each other."

Kristoff raised an eyebrow. "See? Even you can clearly see that. Why would you ever think of her falling for him?" He lightly laughed when he felt a fist gently but firmly land on his shoulder. "You're right. But Elsa's a lot more knowledgeable than the both of us. Maybe she caught something we missed…"

Anna rapidly inhaled and clasped her hands. "He's secretly a prince running away from his responsibilities! Or a rich son of a noble house who got fed up with his life and wants to live for adventure!" she exclaimed with glittering eyes.

"Maybe not that extreme…" Kristoff tried to dampen her enthusiasm, not surprised anymore that her imagination had run amok. "But probably something along that way."

* * *

Elsa had managed to steady her breath after a while but didn't utter a single word for quite some time. A single thought was completely clouding her mind.

_He's like me. There's someone like me. I'm not alone._

Garret was still standing there, carefully eyeing her, not really knowing what to do with himself. He had very seriously considered fleeing—he could easily slip away at any moment—but the tone she had used, the pure and raw relief that had shone through her eyes when he had confirmed that he possessed the same powers as she did had completely petrified him.

"Excuse me for a moment," the queen finally whispered, taking a few steps and walking past the man to near the pond. She seemed to be in silent contemplation for a moment until her body began to softly shake as she hugged herself and a few muffled sounds echoed in the empty gardens.

Garret had expected a lot of reactions, but certainly not tears. He was now more worried than anything else.

"El–Elsa?" he tentatively tried to close the distance, but as soon as his feet met the cold grass, Elsa turned back, her eyes beading with shiny teardrops. As opposed to what he had dreaded, her entire face was beaming with a warm smile, the corner of her lips almost meeting the humid trail of her rapid crying. She quickly dried up her eyes with a swing of her wrist and a few chuckles.

"I'm sorry, this is the first time I've ever had the chance to meet someone who shared my situation. I shouldn't have gotten this emotional. Please don't mind my silliness," she said, her sentences punctuated by some sniffles.

Garret couldn't help but tenderly smile at the sight of the blonde woman embarrassedly laughing at her own _silly_ reaction. She was but a young lass lost to a birthright she never truly comprehended either, after all. However, his face regained a more serious expression when he heard her next question.

"Are there any others? Can I meet them too?"

That had been his first question as well. "Not that I know of. I'm sorry, Elsa. You're also the first for me."

Elsa's face fell in disappointment. "You too?" Garret nodded. "Then, why didn't you tell me?"

"Umm," he hesitantly thought over what to answer. He stood still, weighing his words.

 _This question was bound to be asked at some point. For what it's worth, might as well go all out._ Garret brought his head down.

"I… I was afraid. Of how you would respond. Even though you… With those powers… That is to say…" Garret stuttered. "I generally never had… peaceful reactions when it was discovered that I could do what I do. Really not peaceful…" He stopped for a moment, focusing his mind on the present moment. "And, well, there's also the leaking thing…" he continued, raising his left arm for Elsa to appropriately get a look at the glimmering crystals forming on his hand, slowly growing once again. "This never happened to me before."

"I'm sorry," he felt compelled to add after a few seconds of complete silence, though Elsa got the feeling it wasn't for his secrecy.

She took a small step forward. Garrets' head snapped up, his eyes meeting hers.

Instead of plunging him into the state of shame in which he was accustomed to finding refuge, the blue eyes before him made his mind go completely blank. There was no confusion, no fear, no anger, no pity, no compassion in them. He had become used to receiving those all the time, he always recognized them pretty easily. No, Elsa's face was brimming with something else. A single emotion that he never thought would be directed towards him.

**Understanding.**

His eyes softened. His pulse evened. His breath relaxed. A weird warmth enveloped his body, and the dizziness he had been feeling for a few moments started to fade away. The queen lightly laughed while she cast her gaze to the sky.

"Please, don't apologize or you'll begin to sound like me. I didn't want to make you feel bad about yourself. Besides, I can't really blame you. I've done the exact same thing… Only for a lot longer."

_Oh, right._

Garret collected himself and gave her a sympathetic nod. "I heard about that."

Elsa took a few seconds to reflect, leaving the former soldier alone with his whirling thoughts. She finally snapped back. "Can you please follow me?" she delicately asked, indicating the general direction of the backdoor Garret had already seen and would have used if he had had to proceed with his escape plan. Opening the doors for her as they advanced, he walked in her steps for what he counted to be three minutes. They finally reached a single wooden panel that led to a small rocky path, overlooking the entrance to the fjord. At their right lay Arendelle, basking in the long and absolute silence of the night, and at their left was the castle's main body of water that opened the way to the port. On the opposite shore, Garret managed to discern a thick forest that climbed up to the North.

Elsa heaved a heavy sigh that drew Garret's attention back from the scenery. "This is the place where I made the second biggest mistake of my life", she said with clear sadness. "I fled from my responsibilities, my kingdom... My sister..." She brought her eyes to the border of water, seemingly recalling a very hurtful memory. Whatever had happened, it had pained her beyond words. But she decided against giving more details in the end.

"You were scared," he said.

Elsa shook her head. "It doesn't excuse what I did. But I learned from it. I will never hide them anymore. And neither should you. They are as much part of you as they are of me." She faced him with a small smile. "Please don't apologize for being who you are."

Garret mirrored her smile and nodded again.

_She saw right through me._

A heavy silence lingered on afterward, only allowing the faint whistle of the wind and the rustle of the leaves to reach their ears. Elsa nervously played with her fingers, her eyes fixated on Garret's left leg. The sight she had caught earlier would stick to her mind for quite some time. He had obviously noticed and was very awkwardly shifting on his feet.

"Garret, I…" Elsa started. "I'm sorry if this is rude, but how did this happen?"

Garret released a breath. "The… life of a soldier is a dangerous one. I made a mistake too, and I've paid the price," he almost sighed. "Lost my leg, replaced it."

"I'm sorry to hear it," Elsa said in a sympathetic tone. He could almost hear the questions trying to fight their way outside her mind. He was thankful for her abstinence. Turning her interrogations down would have been awkward. So, without any other idea, she just blurted out the first thing that came to her. "Does it ever melt?"

As soon as the words slipped past her lips, she resisted the urge to slap herself.

_The guy who just happens to have powers like yours lost a leg, made a replacement out of unbreakable ice, and you're asking if it MELTS?!_

With a fuming head and reddening cheeks, Elsa quietly scanned Garret's face to see his eyes substantially widen as well. She was on the verge of apologizing for her stupid question when he slightly startled her by exploding in an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Of all things, hysterical amusement was the reaction Elsa had found to be the less likely in such a situation. But that didn't lessen the embarrassment she was feeling, especially when Garret bent down to his knees with his body shaking from raw hilarity.

"I'm–sorry," he tried to say through ragged breaths. "I'm r-really… sorry…" he added before coughing a few times. He finally managed to reduce the loud roars to quiet chuckles and to get back on his feet under her astonished—and very slightly hurt—stare. He got rid of a tear that had shown up in his eye and joined his palms together. "I'm so terribly sorry. I meant no disrespect. It's just that… I never had to deal with that question before. The few people who find out usually first ask if it hurts or if I can feel anything through it. And that's when they didn't just run off screaming to whoever they meet that they had just seen a demon."

He lightly chuckled again and gave her the warmest smile he could manage. Elsa silently marveled at how young that simple gesture made him seem to be. He easily looked like he had just returned five years in time compared to the tired expression he had been displaying until then. The way he had gone from the look of a sad puppy to that of a confident young man through a good laugh made it very difficult for her to feel mad at him. Her own mouth imperceptibly contorted into a tiny grin.

"That's a very good question, actually," Garret continued while lightly raising the aforementioned leg. "No, it never melts. I can modify its form but unless I act upon it myself, nothing will change its shape. Not even heat."

Elsa was surprised to hear that he too was capable of such a feat. The only other similar creation she had produced was her ice castle, up in the mountains. Every other creation of hers she would dissolve herself with a flick of her wrist or leave it to the sun to do what it did best.

 _He must have had an intense emotional rush when building it,_ she thought.

"I see. Your ice is as strong as mine, then."

Another silence. Garret suddenly raised his arms on both sides and shrugged. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"Oh… Why?"

"Your magic is… more powerful. A lot more."

Elsa frowned. Until then he had shown a prowess equal to hers. "I'm not…"

"Elsa, it's very simple. You can create life. I can't."

That stopped her train of thoughts. She was now a lot more curious.

"You can't?"

"Nope. I'm not even able to control ice at a distance. I have total mastery over it on my body and near it, with 'near' meaning a few inches away. But you have better range, better overall control. I can't do... that," he added while motioning towards her dress with his hand. "Maybe I was able to at one point..." he sighed, deciding not to finish that sentence. "Even when comparing the reactions we had to each other… You surely felt something, didn't you?"

Elsa slowly gazed upon her hands at that. "Yes, my hands were emitting steam on their own."

Garret imperceptibly winced. She had just confirmed another fear of his. "See? While I had these… spikes—" he almost spat the word. "—coming out of my hands."

Elsa recalled her own experiences and tried to reassure him. "Garret, I've had similar episodes before."

The man perked up. "You did?" his voice carrying an unmistakably hopeful tone. Elsa slowly nodded.

"I did when I was shutting everything and everyone out. As I told you, I made a grave mistake one day. And I thought that suppressing my powers would solve the problem. As we already talked about, it didn't work as intended. At all. And if it weren't for Anna, I'd…" Elsa paused. "I've come a long way, Garret. I didn't have full control over them for a long time, actually."

"I see." He then seemed to sink deeply in his thoughts, apparently processing all of their exchange. Elsa had surely given him a lot to chew over.

"Now what?" she asked few moments afterward.

"Well… I think I' going to stay for the festival as we agreed, and then I'll be on my way."

"What? Are you being serious?"

Her outburst almost made Garret flinch as he leaned away. She had closed the distance between them in a flash and was now angrily staring at his face with what could only be described as a pout all over her face and her hands on her hips.

"We're probably the only two people in a pretty large radius to have those powers, and you just want to walk away?"

"Ummm… It has nothing to do with you, it's just what I was planning to do anyway," Garret tried to extricate himself from the strangely familiar situation.

"You're being silly. You're really going to let the opportunity to learn how to control your power slip away like that?"

Garret's eyes widened.

 _Knew it_ , Elsa proudly told herself.

"Are you...?" he asked in a disbelieving voice. Elsa's stare softened as she took a step back and clasped her hands before her.

"Yes. I'd be more than happy to teach you. If you'll allow me, of course."

Garret was at a complete loss of words. His gaping mouth was giving it away. He finally managed to get a hold of himself. "I'm… I don't know what to say…"

"Then don't. Stay," Elsa finally said. "I still have to repay you for saving Anna and Kristoff. I'd say this would be sufficient?"

Garret let the shock's aftermath fall down and slightly chuckled. "You know, if I was a little nitpicky, I would say that it almost sounds like you're blackmailing me."

Elsa crossed her arms as she answered. "It's not blackmailing unless I give you an order. But that can be arranged if it is your wish."

Garret laughed, his traits rejuvenating once again. "Never go against the word of the queen. That's what they always told us back home."

"And look where it got you," Elsa added as she lightly chuckled herself. "So... Do we have a deal?"

Garret eyed her for a few silent moments, shook his head once and brought his own cold hand to his chest in a grateful and respectful but very obviously awkward bow. "Deal."

He then slowly bent down on one knee. "Thank you, Milady."

Elsa gave him a kind smile. The scene almost seemed taken out of one of her books, even though it obviously was some kind of knightly protocol. It was always very chivalrous…

She brusquely yanked her hand up and covered her mouth. She had completely forgotten the reason she had come to see him in the first place. The abrupt movement caused Garret to throw a worried look at the woman before him and wonder if he had done something wrong.

"Garret… You're a knight?" Elsa murmured a few seconds later.

"How… What…" he began, his face showing that he couldn't decide if he wanted to infirm or confirm. He settled for a strange grimace, his expression halfway between nervous and surprised.

"The knife you have, there's a seal etched onto it," she explained while taking a step back. "That's a knighthood token, isn't it?"

He released a breath and got up on his feet while dusting his pants. It was really hard to keep things from her, and he figured the distance that separated him from his motherland wasn't a safety check anymore.

"It is," he said, almost reluctantly. "I'm a Knight of the Bath. Not that I approve of that name, mind you…" he sheepishly added. He then quickly spoke when he saw that Elsa was opening her mouth. "But…! That doesn't mean that you have to apologize for this morning. I'm… I have no real ties to the crown anymore. I have nothing to do with the Commonwealth authorities. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Arthurian leg—I mean of course you're familiar with the Arthurian legend," he immediately corrected when he noticed the scolding look that she started giving him. "And with Lancelot?" She nodded. "Well, I'm a little bit like him now, a wandering knight with no ties. Only a lot less legendary. And with less magical swords. And a bit more ice, I guess. And you don't have to call me Sir if that's also a concern of yours."

Elsa was a little dubious at first, and her gaze clearly showed it.

"Come on, why would I lie about this?" Garret said. She raised an eyebrow and he rolled his eyes. "Fine. I can make another oath if that's what you want," he said as he mocked bringing himself to the ground once more.

That got the appropriate reaction out of the queen. She stepped forward, waving her wide open palms with a frantic look. "No, no, no! That… won't be necessary."

 _G_ arret stood with a satisfied grin. "We can talk about all of this later if you wish, Your Majesty. But I fear that your sister and Kristoff will begin to worry if we stay here for too long. We should probably go back."

Elsa nodded but held a smug look. "I agree. But, Your Majesty? Why the formal tone? You were doing fine just calling me Elsa until now…"

Garret hadn't even noticed that he had dropped the titles when addressing her. He had called her by her name for the entirety of the conversation, and it didn't even feel wrong.

"Oh, I didn't…"

Elsa laughed as his face lightly flushed. "Don't worry, I'm just sassing you. But please make sure it doesn't happen too often."

"Right. I'm sorry, Your Majesty," he corrected with a bow.

"Better," she concluded with a satisfied smile.

They slowly made their way towards the dining room, each one them silently processing what had just transpired while they strode through the thinly draped crimson halls. As he held the door open for Elsa to enter another corridor, Garret quietly spoke.

"I'm guessing we're going to tell them everything?"

Elsa didn't even have to think. "Of course. Believe me, it'll make things a lot easier," she answered with the same sad smile he had witnessed earlier.

"Understood. Should I expect a lot of questions?" he demanded as they neared the very last gate.

He didn't know what to understand from the amused expression that appeared on Elsa's face.

* * *

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" a shriek echoed through the large dining room.

"Anna…"

Said princess immediately grabbed her sister's hands with watering eyes. "You're… He's … Oh God, Elsa I'm so happy!" she wailed while hugging the queen's small frame.

"All right. All right. We don't have to make that much of a fuss about it."

"Are you kidding?" Anna shot out with an immense grin. "You're not the only one, Elsa! There's no way we aren't making a fuss about this! We should make a party! We should tell the world!"

"Umm…" a small voice started from the side. Both royal siblings turned around to see Garret timidly raising a finger. "As much as I appreciate the thought, I'd really rather we didn't…?"

"Yooooooouu!" Anna rapidly closed in and Garret braced himself for the inevitable shock of the young woman throwing herself around him in a crushing embrace. He returned the gesture a little clumsily. When she stepped back, her grin had not diminished in the slightest.

"You're a frozen knight! How cool is that?" she exclaimed.

"Pretty cool, I guess," he tentatively said, not wanting to bring attention to the—surely unintended—pun.

Kristoff was standing back with crossed arms and a smile, silently watching the scene unfold. He slightly stirred to face Elsa, who was stifling a laugh at the sight of her sister almost lifting Garret off the ground.

"What a surprise, huh?" she started.

"Yeah, it sort of came out of nowhere. Who could have guessed?" Kristoff said.

"Certainly not me."

"Where do we go from here, then?" he asked while Anna jumped around Garret, showering him with a continuous flow of questions.

"He'll stay. At least, for a while. I… promised to train him," she said sheepishly.

"Train?" Kristoff seemed confused. "No offense, but I'd say that if a single person in this city needed training, he wouldn't be the most obvious option. Especially if you consider the way he took down four armed guys almost on his own."

"Not that kind of training, Kristoff," Elsa clarified.

"Oh," he blustered, comprehension dawning on his features. "Does he… have trouble controlling them?" His tone was now a little more worried.

"He says he does, but I think it's not that bad."

"And what if something goes completely wrong in the middle of the kingdom? And, can we really leave him alone with—"

"Kristoff…" Elsa began, not without a little exasperation. "Do you really think me this neglecting? We won't do it here; we'll probably use my castle. And in the eventuality that his powers completely go berserk, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to handle him…" she concluded. "And you can come if you wish," she added with a roll of her eyes when she saw his eyebrow twitch.

Kristoff nodded with a satisfied expression. He owed his life to the man, but he had seen firsthand what unleashing untamed ice powers could do. Elsa then moved towards where Anna was still bouncing before a tired looking Garret.

"Anna, I think it's time to let Garret go. He'll have to rest for tomorrow's celebration."

"Oh, Elsa!" the princess chirped. "I think I know how we're going to call him!" She took a step back and opened her arms wide, as if presenting the latest fashionable dress to an overstrung crowd. "Meet Knice!" Elsa and Kristoff winced. "You get it? 'Cause…" she continued.

"All right, that's… yeah, that's original…" Elsa interrupted Anna with an unsettled voice. She threw a quick glance towards 'Knice', only to find him looking at her with a livid and pleading face.

 _Sorry,_ she mouthed, giving him a sympathetic grimace. Elsa then clasped her hands. "Anyway, we'll have enough time for questions tomorrow… He's probably very tired now," she told Anna.

"Yeah, be sure to rest well!" the latter finally said, giving Garret one last quick hug.

"Will do," Garret answered. He then grabbed Kristoff's offered handshake. "Does she ever sleep?" he whispered to the man, eliciting a small grin out of him.

"I think she tried once or twice. Didn't stick." They both shared a laugh before separating.

Garret finally found himself standing before Elsa. He rapidly bowed with a grateful smile and spent a few seconds just staring into her eyes.

"Good night," he simply said, immediately turning on his heels afterward.

As he took his leave, Elsa couldn't repress a little regret creeping up on her for not telling him the complete truth about the Great Thaw. She hadn't evoked how Anna had quite literally died for and because of her.

 _Then again, he wasn't completely honest with me on everything either,_ she tried to reassure herself. She let a sigh escape from her chest.

As Garret's large silhouette disappeared behind the main gate's panel, Elsa couldn't help but feel that despite how comfortable they had become with each other in such a short time, she was going to have a little trouble deciphering the man.

_People are complicated._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review, I'd be immensely grateful.
> 
> I'm building this story like I'd build a movie, so if that's a problem in some way, please don't hesitate to tell me! I'm open to all kinds of constructive criticism.
> 
> That's all for now, see you next time.  
> Peace,  
> CalAm.


	5. Memories

Garret's morning started in a strikingly similar fashion to the previous day. Melting droplets, greeting the sun, mumbling in his hands… However, as soon as he stepped outside of his room, the general atmosphere struck him as being fundamentally different from the one he had experienced the day before. Instead of the relaxing calm he had expected, the inn's frontage was very clearly buzzing with activity—a slight hubbub seeped through the thick wooden door into the vast reception room in which he sat to have his breakfast. The former soldier didn't pay much attention to it; he simply sat at a table with the back of his right hand supporting his chin, replaying over and over the exchange that had transpired between him and Elsa the previous evening. He was suddenly jerked out of his thoughts by a wooden bowl appearing in front of him.

"Here are your eggs, lad," the innkeeper said with the same hearty smile Garret guessed was a staple with the man. "And stop looking so grim, today we feast!"

"Appreciate it, Käre," he absent-mindedly answered, not really bringing his focus to the food. Not having time to discuss further, Käre quickly left to see to other customers that had just walked down from their chambers. Garret picked up a spoon and simply started toying with his plate, poking it repeatedly.

 _She wasn't always like this,_ he thought, allowing himself a quick look to his own left leg. _Picking up how to shut them down completely would have been ideal but she's never had good results from that. I'd better forget about it._

Garret sighed. Not only was she completely unbothered by her powers, but what struck him the most was her entourage. Not a single one of the kingdom's citizens even questioned their queen. No accusations. No scared looks. Everybody supported their leader unconditionally. He was surprised to see her frozen creations scattered throughout the city during his visit with Anna, exposed on balconies and outdoor patios like flags floating with the wind. At that point, they were akin to national pride.

The fact that Anna, Kristoff and pretty much everybody else saw Elsa's magic as if she just happened to have a quirky sixth finger on her hand starkly contrasted with his own experience back in his homeland. The sheer difference made him tighten his fists in frustration.

_Maybe if I was born here, she wouldn't have..._

He let his mind wander once again to what he knew too much.

He looked at the sun through the stainless window at his right and repressed a sudden urge to give the table a taste of his fist to snap himself out of his aimless saunter through his own memories. He never liked to dwell on what happened. Leaving the lands of his ancestors was difficult, but it was what he thought to be the most radical means to forget – even if it meant desertion. While he was more than happy to let the haunts of his last weeks home rot away in the back corner of his mind, he learned the hard way that his neurons were a stubborn bunch. He took the dagger his father had earned for him out of his coat.

_Even this far out, you're not going to leave me alone. Damn village fete prize._

Shaking his thoughts off, he put the knife back in his pocket and half-heartedly gobbled a portion of his meal before getting out of the inn. He closed the door behind him, surprised at how much of the exterior noise it actually suppressed.

The entire town was overflowing with bouquets and decorative towers. It was very clear the weights of the mundane life were ever so slightly lifted for the day.

Garret noticed that a group of little girls amassed at the fountain (which was running water properly for the occasion) all wore a crown made of golden sunflower petals, ravishing under the morning sun's rays. The streets were so crowded that Garret couldn't see the pavement five feet away from him, reminding him of the time he spent in London. Among the sea of fashionable hairstyles, Garret noticed that everyone had distinguished clothes, from formal suits for those who seemed to be government officials to elegant dresses and shirts for the more common folk. He suddenly realized how underdressed he was, and also, in a strange surge of clarity, how tall the average person seemed to be. Kristoff was a few inches taller than him and Elsa was almost the same height as he was, but he never associated that with where they were born.

He had already spent quite some time in Germanic countries, yet this was the first instance he took the time to acknowledge the fact.

Shrugging the sentiment off—not much he could do about it—he observed the port to see two or three vessels mooring their hull to the docks while others waited patiently, gently drifting ashore, cradled by the waves like newborns in watery cribs.

_Probably ambassadors from foreign kingdoms. If this whole eternal winter thing happened during her coronation, some of the guests must have been trapped here. From what I understand, they're lucky everybody was happy enough to go home they didn't have to face some retribution._

He distinctly heard music coming from the castle's direction, turning his gaze to see the gates opened to the fullest and a long queue already forming to access the interior courtyard.

 _Better not to bring out your pouty face, soldier,_ he ordered himself. _Today is about Anna and Elsa._

Not wanting to intrude on what seemed like a very important day for the two sisters, he decided to steer clear of the royal duo and especially Elsa. They had both been unbelievably kind to him, he was sure the last thing he wanted for them was to ruin such a celebration because someone noticed a few shiny ice droplets on his cheek. Adding in the general tone of the celebration itself and the little spice of irony it would convey if something went wrong because of his own powers consolidated his reasoning.

_They all accepted that for their queen. Doesn't mean they'll immediately do the same with a freaking stranger who talks funny._

He adjusted his coat on his shoulders and managed to wear his traditional neutral smile.

_Time to mingle._

Mingling took the better part of his day. Expecting a tedious time, he, on the contrary, was amazed by the general friendliness he encountered. He had always thought the city folk was a lot surlier than that anywhere he went: Arendelle seemed to be the rule—defining exception. He managed to escape the boring conversations—most of which were initiated by a random child singling him out as an unknown face and their parents pointing out his accent when he talked to say it was nothing—as gracefully as he could but he still gathered some interesting information about the kingdom and heard a few fairly good jokes. He knew he'd forget about them in the hour, but it still made for some small talk to take his mind off watching people enjoy their day. He also took a few moments throughout the afternoon to observe the never-ending dance rounds in the middle of the castle's courtyard, not really surprised to see they all featured Anna, sometimes accompanied by Kristoff, and almost never Elsa.

Aside from two or three two-minute long sessions her sister obtained by dragging her out of her seat, she had spent the entire celebration at her table and around it, getting up to greet some familiar faces here and there, sending a furrow of snowflakes in the air whenever the children asked for it, cheering when Anna managed a particularly difficult looking dance step—she had obviously trained for the circumstance—and asking for refuels of chocolate, tea, and soup.

Lifting his eyes to the sky, Garret noticed the singular crimson tint announcing a nearing sunset.

_It flew by, huh._

The celebrations were almost over when Garret simply took a seat at a table in one of the courtyard's corners and crossed his arms, leaning against the back of his chair. As the last lyrics of the strange but very melodious vocal music resounded, he saw Elsa lift herself up from her seat, although he could've sworn Anna had nudged her up. She lightly coughed and tapped a single crystalline note on her glass, shutting the mild brouhaha.

 _Of course, it's ice,_ Garret thought with a small grin. _Next thing I know, the castle's all ice too._

"First of all, I wish to thank everyone who did us the honor of joining us today. It has been a marvelous occasion to eat, dance, talk and laugh with you for what is and will henceforth be a celebration of love," Elsa started. She raised her glass at that, prompting Anna to excitedly applaud, closely followed by a shrugging Kristoff and the entire assembly. Even though she didn't stop smiling, Elsa visibly sighed and quickly regained her speaking authority. "Love… is painful. It is frightening. It makes you doubt, it makes you judge, it makes you distance yourself from those who matter. Often, it is not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there; husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, old friends… If you look for it, you will find it everywhere." Garret's smile imperceptibly diminished and he felt his heart wring at that while all listened intently. "It is a short word, difficult to define. But a year ago, today, love showed us its power. Its potential. For once in my life, I saw that I was missing the most important. That I hadn't the strength to go on without it. A year ago, today, I forgot to love. Thankfully, some people were here for me to remember it all. And I want us all to remember that every hour, every minute, every second was worth it because we spent it together," Elsa added, taking her sister's hands into her own. Anna's smile was radiant and outshone the falling sun’s pure rays. "I want us all to remember that our love for each other will shine on each and every one of us. Heimr Árnadalr!" she concluded, sending a fiery packet of snow into the heavens.

"Heimr Árnadalr!" the crowd chanted with unhidden joy, a second round of applause exploding afterward together with whistles and loud cheers. This time, Anna was too busy hugging her sister to assist.

Garret slightly hung his head, his smile not disappearing from his face.

_Good for them._

He started reminiscing again when a happy voice snapped him out of his mind.

"Garret!" Anna called cheerfully. She motioned for him to come closer to their table, while the rest of the guests started leaving the courtyard. Garret walked slowly, trying to force that smile back onto his face. He gave a solemn nod to the trio as soon as he arrived as a form of greeting.

"So? How did you like it?" Anna asked impatiently, biting her lip in anticipation.

"It was a lot of fun, actually," he genuinely said. "I'm not used to these types of celebrations, but you really did throw a wonderful party."

"Oh darn, yeah it was fun. It was almost as fun as organizing all of it," Anna giggled, not afraid to show her pride on her features, clear as day. “I’ve always wanted to do this.”

"It also helps that the whole city was in the streets. Not many kingdoms can fit their entire population into the castle's courtyard," Kristoff added.

"Well, they certainly don't know what they're missing," Elsa said in a dreamy voice, her eyes fixated on Arendelle's roofs that stuck out from behind the ramparts. "I just hope my speech wasn't _too_ corny."

"It was a little bit," Anna quipped. Although the remark was very obviously on a jesting tone, Elsa blinked a bit too quickly for her not be confused. "But that's what we love about you," she added, giving her sister a playful wink.

"I've sat through my fair share of motivational speeches for the troops back home," Garret started. "I've gotten pretty good at guessing when they're known by heart…" Elsa glanced at him, her eyes tight and worried. "… but this one was the sincerest of them all," he finished.

The poor woman slightly relaxed. She must have been drowning in worry.

"It was the first of many to come!" Anna chirped as she got up, stretching her arms up as far as she could. "I'm going inside, my stomach demands some rest," she said with a laugh, mockingly swelling her belly. "G'night, Knice! Kristoff, Elsa, you coming?"

"Right away," Kristoff answered as he took her arm around his. "See you, G." Garret quickly nodded.

"I'll be right behind you," Elsa responded as they began striding towards their home. "I'll just have a word with Garret about tomorrow." The man lifted his eyebrows at the mention of his name. "It's about our first 'training' session. I would like to meet at noon near the town's limits, if that is fine. I'm afraid we'll have to use another castle, just in case something happens." The man nodded in understanding. "Kristoff, Anna and some guards will be present, though I assure you they will not disturb us in any way," Elsa finished with a smile.

"Sounds good to me," Garret said. He wouldn't have guessed they'd start so soon, but it didn't amount to much in his case.

_I'm not going to complain, am I?_

"Well then, it is settled. I'll take my leave, Your Majesty," he said with a rapid bow.

"Very well. See you tomorrow."

Elsa waited pensively until the castle's main gates closed behind Garret. She noticed that he was once again hiding his hands.

He had seemed different than the day before. The expression he wore was the same tired smile she saw on him whenever he wasn't laughing, yet his eyes were not as keen, as if he didn't really wake from his sleep. She threw a glance at her hands: the steam was ever so thick and flowed towards the entrance, but this time the sensation of warm tingling had disappeared.

* * *

The next day started uneventfully. It occurred to Elsa that same morning that she hadn't really given a thought about what she'd actually do to teach Garret until then. Telling Anna had resulted in a very characteristic "You'll figure it out!", seeing as she had no clue how her sister's powers worked.

Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff found Garret waiting at Arendelle's entrance as agreed. The trip that followed she mostly spent thinking on how best to explain what she felt when using her magic. Each of her steps suddenly stemmed another question about what to say, what to show, what to express. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't pay much attention to the conversation between the three people behind her.

"The same day? The exact same day? As in the morning you had never seen him and the evening you were engaged?"

She threw a fleeting glance towards the trio that lagged a few feet back. Garret was visibly taken aback; Kristoff was obviously trying to hold a laugh and Anna's brows were so furrowed they almost touched. Further behind were the several guards Jürden had detached.

"I was young and naïve," Anna said, her voice gratingly low.

"That was a year ago," Kristoff whispered, scratching his chin smugly. The piercing glare he received at that moment made him quickly go back to a neutral expression, his gaze fixated on the road ahead.

Elsa was pretty sure she was the one that hated Hans the most. The simple act of hearing his name or what he did always prompted some kind of revulsion. She shuddered slightly at her own resentment. The punishment he received back in the Southern Isles was only fitting.

"So, this guy wanted the throne so badly he seduced you," Garret thought out loud, piecing together the story the couple had started narrating after they had left Arendelle's urban limits.

"He said that since Elsa was a no-go, he had settled for killing her and getting me. An absolutely disgusting, filthy, piece of trash," Anna spat. "Non-exhaustive list."

"Excuse the language, but that's a bloody shag-bag," Garret deadpanned.

Anna snorted, dropping the hard look her face harbored, but Elsa was a bit shocked at the blatant use of vulgarity. Growing up isolated in a castle didn't allow for much colorful words to reach her ears. She, however, didn't mind as much.

 _It's Hans,_ she thought, shrugging lightly. _Also, is that how that's pronounced?_

Having only ever read the expression, she never really pondered the question of how to say it.

The frozen tip of her castle suddenly appeared amidst the forest's never-ending leafy carpet. Elsa's smile grew larger with each second passing, already sensing the nostalgic serenity building in her chest. A small smile formed on her lips. Little by little, the majestic construction unveiled itself from the mountain's opposing side.

The group quickly reached the almost-transparent stairs leading up to the main entrance. Taking a long breath, Elsa basked into the charged atmosphere, letting herself experience a piece of freedom once again. Never had she encountered a similar exhilaration anywhere. Had it not been for her royal duties, she would gladly spend most of her time up there.

It was a bittersweet feeling. She knew how her rush had been catastrophic, but she never had the opportunity to cry out her joy in such a manner; Anna had been worth giving it up anyway.

 _In spite of all that happened, that was a night to remember,_ she told herself, not unhappy that she stood where she did.

"We're here," she said calmly, turning around to face her escort. The expression on Garret's face almost made her laugh on the spot. With eyes as big as his gaping mouth, the man wasn't even trying to hide his surprise.

"You're going to catch flies like that," Anna said as she skipped past him, gently pushing his lower jaw up with her finger on her way.

Garret lightly shook his head, marched on for a few seconds and stood in front of the stairs, brushing his fingers along the crystal-clear ornaments of the handrail. He threw a strange glance at Elsa. Though she was confident he'd be motivated by the castle's sight, amidst the relative awe, she could swear a spark of apprehension flashed through his eyes.

_Or is it fear?_

The doors suddenly slammed open with a loud din, letting Marshmallow's gigantic shape emerge from within.

"Elsa!" the giant ice creature groaned with its best attempt at a happy voice.

She tenderly smiled. "Hello, Marshmallow," she responded affectuously, indulging it with a few head pats as it bent before her. However, in an abrupt movement, Marshmallow whirled its enormous head around toward Garret.

"Is everything alright?" Elsa demanded, a bizarre sense of dread filling her mind.

The giant iceman lowly growled, spikes growing from its back. It took a first step. Elsa's confusion was only overshadowed by the imminent sense of danger Marshmallow's aggressive stance was oozing. Garret had probably guessed he was not welcome since he had stepped back with a worried look. Anna and Kristoff's expressions were also evidently distressed. The guards immediately surrounded them, their weapons at the ready.

"Your Majesty, should I go?" Garret demanded.

Elsa shook her head. She quickly stepped between her castle's guardian and Garret with her hands lifted in front of her and talked in the most soothing voice she could. "Hey, hey, hey, it's okay, he's a friend! He's not a bad guy. He can go inside."

Marshmallow brought its glazed eyes to meet hers with a perplexed grunt. "But… he's red!"

Everyone except Garret loosened their shoulders with a sigh.

"It's okay, Marsh! I'm red too," Anna laughed, taking a few strands of her hair in her palm for her to show the creature.

"No, he's really red!" Marshmallow insisted, its frustration noticeably growing.

"Yes, he is. But there's not a lot we can do about that now, can we?" Elsa said in a maternal tone. "He's coming in with us."

Marshmallow's spikes disappeared into its back. "Okay," it said with a quick nod, stepping on the side to let everyone into the castle. Garret still didn't let his eyes leave the iceman as he hurriedly walked past it, making an extra effort to stick to the rail, just in case. The ravine did seem pretty deep.

Once inside, Elsa quickly ran her eyes over the different walls, still amazed by their intricate design, before bringing them back to her guest.

"Welcome to _my_ castle", she said with a motion of her arms.

Garret dropped his voice to a whisper. "This is...mind-boggling."

Elsa shrugged one shoulder, tossing her hair with the movement. "I'll... take that as a compliment."

"You sure as hell should," Garret completed, making a last visual tour.

"This will do just fine. Let's not waste any more time, shall we?"

Garret took a few seconds to steel his resolve and gave a sharp nod to signify his agreement. Kristoff, Anna, and the guards simply stood in the back, watching intently.

"So… Let's start with the secret ingredient," Elsa began with a smile. "And as you have probably already guessed thanks to yesterday's speech, it is **love**."

Garret lifted his eyebrows in bewilderment. He then lightly grinned and turned around to Anna and Kristoff, expecting a wink or a complicit snicker. His smirk immediately vanished when they both raised their thumbs up with a smile. He brought his head back to the Snow Queen.

"That's serious?"

Elsa raised her eyebrows in mild offense. "Of course. Think of anyone you love and it should just flow through you. That's how I do it," she said with a proud voice. Taking a deep breath, Elsa closed her eyes. She felt her power surge through her veins, driving along her arms. Reaching her fingertips, she modeled the wave to take the shape of a shiny star, spreading its reach little by little until it was a large as plate. "In order for us to get anywhere, I'll need to know where we'll start," she said, opening her eyelids. "Can you recreate this?"

Garret straightened his back and brought his hands up. He seemed to concentrate, his brows furrowing progressively. After several seconds, he slightly bent forward and a strain vein appeared on his neck. He finally let out a grunt and closed his fists, apparently disappointed. "Can I start with something more familiar?" he asked sheepishly.

Elsa was honestly surprised but eventually nodded in understanding. "Of course. I just need to see what you can do. And don't forget. Think of anyone you love. Your father, your mother, a sibling, a significant other… Anyone."

Garret heavily sighed and brought his palms together before him. A small light emerged from the interstice, gaining in intensity moment after moment. He suddenly detached his right hand and tugged as if he was pulling something from the center of his left. A frozen shaft appeared, its edges rough and messy. Garret continued pulling, and eventually a sharp angle was formed at the left extremity of the rod, severing its connection to his hand. He sighed again, lifting the object for Elsa to see. "This is an arrow," Garret said with a neutral tone.

Elsa stepped forward, her eyes not leaving the creation. The long baseline was opaque, with sharp bits protruding here and there like a shark's tooth. The arrowhead had a raw outline, with a hollow centerpiece that, if she had to guess, served as a counterweight for the dull extremity on the other side. She wasn't a weapon expert by any means, but time and a lot of books made for an extensive general culture.

_This is about being efficient. He wanted to create this as fast as possible._

"May I?" she asked.

She gently took the arrow from his hands, examining it more closely. As she had theorized, the weight was perfectly distributed. She even noticed that the main shaft wasn't actually made up of a single piece but constituted a myriad of small blocks linked by microscopic bridges so that the whole arrow was flexible and could almost bend under moderate pressure. While it was designed with practicality as a first focus, she undoubtedly recognized the way the crystals were formed; laced into one another at the top to maximize their strength. It was however much weaker in this case, as attested by its non-transparent aspect. He hadn't been wrong: his ice wasn't as strong as hers.

 _But this reminds me a lot of what my ice looked like before last year,_ she thought, silently recalling the sharp aspect of her constructs prior to her embracing her powers. _He's trying to suppress them._

"Garret, can I ask you…" she lifted her eyes back to him, only to realize with perplexity that he wasn't there anymore. Neither Kristoff, Anna nor the guards were.

_Huh?_

Spinning on her heels, she noticed that she wasn't in her castle. She was standing in a forest that looked nothing like those that surrounded Arendelle. She raised her eyes, seeing a large cloud of black smoke covering the reddened sky. A strange noise gradually grew into her ear, akin to the cries of a crowd.

_What? What is this?_

"A-Anna? Kristoff?" she called, taking a hesitant step. Panic was slowly starting to build up. "Garret! Where are you?" She was suddenly startled by distant voices, booming amongst an undefined and ghostly clamor, yet far enough that she couldn't pinpoint their location.

_"You know what we do to freaks? We put them right. It is our sacred duty. And, God willing, we will put you both right."_

As quickly as they appeared, the voices went silent. Elsa gave fearful looks all around her, clutching her arms to her chest. Her breath quickened, her chest tightened, and her eyes widened. She pricked up her ears, ready to react at the faintest commotion. Walking slowly, she approached the enigmatic wood's rim, carefully taking in all the signals she could. Advancing in between trees, she detected the singular smell of burning. A faint light slalomed through the thicket, indicating a direction to follow.

_A bonfire?_

Getting closer, her curiosity took precedence over her prudence, but she still remained alert. As she advanced, the smell grew noticeably more rancid, actually turning into a stench the more she closed the distance. When she finally reached the source of the ungodly odor, she found herself looking at an enflamed ten-feet-high wooden pole stuck into the very ground, the licks of flame lifting into the sky with incessant crackles. Pinching her nose, Elsa tentatively braved the heat to take a better look. She clearly distinguished a dark silhouette at the bonfire's base.

Her eyes widened, her heart skipping several beats as her blood ran cold in terror.

_There's someone in there._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heimr Arnadalr = Home Arendelle
> 
> Aaaaand I'm back!
> 
> Okay, this is where I consider that we are IN. The introduction's done. As an apology for getting back to it this late, I went back and did a serious revision on the first four chapters. Just to get this story nice and smooth. Also, about Frozen II. I didn't really like it as much as the first, but (as you can already guess from this chapter) it has some interesting ideas I will use. And, as I want to stick to lore canon, I decided it will happen in this story with some changes. After this first arc, but I won't skip it.
> 
> Of course, I'll take all the criticism I can get, that's how I plan to hopefully be better at this. So don't forget to review, please!
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	6. Castle

Despite the vivid horror that was gripping her entrails, Elsa's mind furiously fumbled to come up with a solution to quell the raging inferno before her. The silhouette inside hadn't moved since she had arrived. The stench was only getting stronger.

_Put it out! Put it out! Put it out!_

She hurriedly brought her hands up, defying the daunting flames and feeling their unyielding waves of heat traverse her body with a devastating pulse. The fire crackled, sending a furrow of sparks in all directions as if provoking her. It was a duel she could win.

_I've got to cool it down!_

"Please hang on! I will try to get rid of the fire!" she exclaimed at the top of her voice, not really knowing if they could hear her amidst the bonfire's roar.

She focused her mind as she usually did, trying her hardest to think of Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, Arendelle… Yet not a single snowflake was projected from her open palm. With wide eyes, Elsa looked upon her hands. She let the for once warm breath in her lungs out and tried a second time to generate some snow. Again, nothing.

_What… Why? Why now?_

The heat was becoming unbearable. With a disbelieving tint in her gaze, Elsa took a few steps back. Tears were starting to form in the corner of her eyes, hissing away as soon as they left her cheeks. Her powers had never failed her in that way before. While not always the most secure, they at least were there for her.

_Come on… Come on…_

"Come on!"she then furiously howled, lifting her hands up in a last-ditch effort as she closed her eyes.

Her cry was a plea for help, a desperate way to ask for them to come back to her. Unfortunately, the familiar surge that usually crossed her arms' length was nowhere to be found.

In spite of that, the heat seemed to diminish. Keeping her eyelids sealed, she pressed on, very acutely sensing the friendly and intimate bite of a cold night gaining back what was its rightful territory. When all acoustic traces of flames had disappeared, Elsa finally dared to open her eyes, a blossoming hope that she had acted early enough starting to fill her heart.

For the second time, she found herself in a completely different place than the one she had been standing in a blink ago. Confusion replaced dread on her features. She quickly scanned the area, searching for the poor soul that she had tried to save.

"Hello? Are you there?" she aimlessly asked.

Strange looking houses were surrounding her, some logs nonchalantly thrown before their patios. The sky had gone back to its usual pure black, the shining glimmer of stars its only company. Traces of smoke were not present anymore and the smell had also disappeared. The village she had seemingly landed in only had a single plaza, empty at that moment. The sound of shattered glass suddenly boomed from the other side of the small town, making Elsa jump on her spot.

She pondered for a few fleeting moments whether to investigate. Fear was paralyzing her movements, but the sudden panic had started waning off; she could clearly establish her priorities.

_I need to go back._

In the end, given her recent trend to jump between locations at an assumedly random pace, she decided against further prying. She brought her eyes to her hands another time and noticed that she was still holding Garret's arrow. The icy projectile had a strange red halo around it as her gaze traveled along its length.

Elsa's hair stood up when she felt an odd presence around her. Lifting her head, she searched her immediate surroundings in a hurry.

An armored silhouette was standing across from her in the town's central square. Sensing her fear creep back up again, Elsa's chest tightened.

_He's… facing away?_

From a distance, the armor looked nothing like the leather-based tunics worn by Arendelle's guards. Enveloping the entire body, it flickered a singular shimmer, as if reflecting the starlight showering over it. It was hard to discern much in the obscure mist surrounding it, but its edges were distinguishable enough for Elsa to make out its pale blue color. In a slow movement, the man—the silhouette was too big to belong to a woman—turned his head to look in her direction over his shoulder. The helmet was as enveloping as the rest of the armor, with sharp features protruding like a hawk's beak and a grooved and ribbed plaque on the side to let the face inside it breathe.

The vicious glow that could only be a glare she perceived through the dark openings on the helmet's top made Elsa muster all the courage she could find in every fiber of her body to squeak a single line, her hands trembling.

"Who are you? Whe—Where am I?"

A feral grunt echoed through the pine-plated walls, loud enough for its rumble to overcome the sound of Elsa's pounding heart in her ears as she was swallowed into the void.

* * *

The arrow was still in her hands, its glow no longer perceivable.

"…so, is it satisfactory?" she heard a voice on her left softly call.

Blinking rapidly, Elsa found herself back into her castle, standing before the little group that had climbed up the North Mountain with her.

_Huh?_

Garret was fidgeting on his spot, his hands tied behind his back in a straight and rigid pose that could only be a long-lived habit of the former soldier. His gaze was focused but he was anxiously awaiting Elsa's verdict.

"What… How…" Elsa stuttered.

Garret lifted his eyebrows with a worried look, the eventuality of his ice being repulsive to his newfound teacher drilling its way into his head. Even Anna was starting to suspect Elsa wasn't in the most comfortable state of mind.

_I… didn't leave? What happened?_

Elsa's thoughts were whirling around, not excluding any hypothesis, as ludicrous as they were.

"If you think my capacities unredeemable, I would completely understand," Garret's voice snapped her out of her torpor a second time, his dejected voice completely betraying his self-doubt even when he seemingly managed to keep his face from displaying anything other than a neutral expression.

"No, no! I… just got a bit light-headed is all," she said quickly, still confused by her odd experience. "This is… this is a good starting point." Elsa caught the man imperceptibly heaving a sigh of relief. "I would like you to strengthen the basis first," she added, her confidence slowly building back up. "Do you see these fibers running along your crystals?" she asked, immediately receiving a sharp nod. "Try to link them through the three tips rather than one. I know it might look counterintuitive, but it will be a lot easier to work with that."

"Very well."

Garret then went back to his ice-making without further notice, letting Elsa hurriedly walk towards Anna. As soon as she was close enough, she leaned in, almost whispering into her sister's ear.

"I just went through the strangest thing I've ever experienced," she said with a serious tone.

Anna lifted her eyebrows. "That's coming from the ice wielding Queen of Arendelle?" she said, a wide grin already forming on her lips.

"Yes, it is," Elsa replied matter-of-factly, still keeping her volume as low as possible.

Anna's smile was immediately replaced by a frown when she noticed the shaking in Elsa's whispers. She dropped her voice too. Only Kristoff could now overhear their conversation. "What happened?"

"When I grabbed the arrow, I was… I don't know, it seemed like I wasn't here anymore. I stood in a forest with pines all around me. Then I smelled fire, and I found what I can only describe as a stake. There was someone in it." Anna's frown was progressively transforming into an anxious look. "I tried to save them… I wanted to throw my snow at it but nothing would come out. After that, I was in a village…"

"Wait, what happened to the guy in the fire?"

Elsa gulped with difficulty. The feeling of powerlessness she would definitely not qualify as the most pleasant she'd lived through. And the pyre…

"I honestly have no idea," Elsa responded. "The last thing I remember is someone wearing heavy armor staring at me across that village's main square."

Taking a few seconds to let Elsa's story sink in, Anna looked her sister in the eye. "Are you feeling okay?" she said in her usual gentle tone. Elsa lightly smiled. Her voice would always soothe her.

"Yes, I do," she lied. "It's just…"

She was interrupted when her castle's gates flew open.

"Your Majesty!"

In the doorframe stood the city guard's captain. Garret halted his intense concentration, turning around with curiosity to recognize the man that had asked him to leave the training grounds a few days before.

"Einar!" Elsa's surprise was clearly manifesting in her voice.

The man was heavily panting, beads of sweat dripping from his face.

_Did he run up here?_

"Is everything all right? Who's in charge back in Arendelle?" Elsa worriedly asked.

"Sir Jürden is, Milady," Einar answered breathlessly. "Actually, he's the one who sent me to you. I have an urgent message from him."

_Jürden sent his best man here to give me a report?_

"What is it about?" she proudly asked, clasping her hands before her. Before Einar could answer, a dozen steps were heard hurriedly climbing the stairs, a platoon of guards joining their Captain in a short-winded sprint. Elsa's eyes slightly widened.

_An entire detachment?_

"I'm afraid the news isn't good, Milady. We proceeded this morning to Princess Anna and Sir Kristoff's kidnappers' interrogation."

Elsa's interest was piqued, though not in the better way.

"They are mercenaries. They didn't even hesitate to talk," the captain said, trying the best he could to exude a solemn demeanor in spite of his tiredness.

Garret neared the group, intently listening to the conversation. Einar threw a severe glare his way, visibly hesitating to talk in front of a stranger. The urgency of the matter required him to overlook the feeling, however.

"So, this is good? It sounds like it's good," Kristoff asked.

"I'm afraid not, sir. This lack of loyalty means they were simply paid to kidnap Her Highness and yourself. A good—" He interrupted himself. "—a bit of persuasion revealed that they were hired by a small man with a gray mustache and a delirious behavior."

Elsa gasped. "The Duke?"

Einar nodded. "Yes, Milady, we suspect as much."

"Who's that guy?" Garret asked Anna in a serious tone, noticing the worried look that was marring every other person present.

"He… He was trapped here during the Eternal Winter. He wasn't the biggest fan of Elsa's powers, accusing her of sorcery and all that…" Garret's jaw clenched at the statement. "He sent two of his men to kill her right here. Even if you don't take that into account, he's just a materialistic jerk. After the Great Thaw, Elsa cut all commercial and diplomatic ties with his country, Measlestone or something like that…"

"Weselton," Elsa corrected gravely, her gaze cast down. She brought her eyes back up to the captain. "I thought he wasn't duke anymore?"

"Indeed. He has been revoked of his station last year, but he still has substantial personal resources, so it doesn't seem that farfetched—a man like that must have always hoarded money for his own sake. They also told us he was not the only one. A consortium of half a dozen men ordered the attack. Not a single information on the others, though."

"Why would they want Anna or Kristoff?" Elsa asked out loud, biting her thumb's nail.

"We were also told the target was in reality specifically Princess Anna," the captain somberly added.

Said princess pointed towards her own chest in stupefaction. "Me?"

"Yes, Your Highness. Those were the mercenaries' words. However, if I'm being completely honest, we strongly believe that…"

"…Her Majesty's the target," Garret completed with his arms crossed and a hard frown Elsa, Anna and Kristoff were seeing for the first time. "It makes sense."

Einar sighed, a look of exasperation on his features. He nonetheless nodded. "That is correct." Sensing the impending questions, the captain explained. "We are all aware of the close bond between her majesty and her highness. The duke might have wanted to exploit that…"

"Luring you out, using me…" Anna murmured, comprehension dawning on her.

Garret expanded on that. "He knows he can't harm you because of your magic. He gets Anna, sends you a message asking you to come alone someplace isolated enough, promising to dispose of your sister if you don't…"

"…he then kills you and returns Anna for a handsome fee, seeing that the kingdom has no other heir," Kristoff finished, his eyes wide as he firmly gripped his girlfriend's hand in his own.

"Sound plan, if not completely original," Garret spat with contempt. Elsa's disbelief was as clear on her visage as her fearful bright blue eyes when she turned her head to face him.

_They were going for her… because of me?_

"That is the most probable possibility," Einar continued. "Sir Jürden immediately reached this conclusion and sent me here to bring you back to the castle's safety as soon as permitted. That is the reason I came with a second troop to supplement the first."

"Your Majesty, we are talking about a guy who has a personal grief with you and called you a sorceress before," Garret stated. "This has to be taken seriously."

Elsa, still looking down, felt Anna's tiny hands on her shoulders. "We should probably go," her calm voice murmured. Elsa soundlessly nodded, putting her own palm over her sister's.

"When did you last hear of this guy? Do you have anything on the others behind all this?" Garret asked Einar with a pensive yet serious expression.

"Those aren't things I can discuss with you, I'm afraid."

Garret sighed. "All right. I underst—"

A booming sound echoed through the immense hall, jerking everyone up.

"Thunder? Did it even rain?" Anna asked. The Guard's quizzical expressions did not give her any answer, except that they were as lost as she was.

Garret was frantically looking up, his eyes wide open. "Everyone out of the castle," he simply said.

No movement. Another boom.

"Everybody out! NOW!" he screamed this time.

Kristoff gave him a worried glance. "What's the matt…"

He was half-way through his sentence when a heavy impact shook the entire structure, making Anna and a few guards lose their footing. Elsa immediately jolted next to her sister, helping her up.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. I think…"

"GO!" Garret roared once again, as a third boom resounded.

The guards dragged their comrades with them, while Elsa, Garret and Kristoff sprinted after them. A second tremor shook the castle, trembling the ground under Elsa and making her fall this time. The walls started cracking around her, their structural integrity compromised. Cracks and fissures appeared all around her and raced to every side of the hall. The floor seemed to lean on the side little by little, making her slowly drift away from the exit. She saw Garret and Anna interrupt their sprint to come back toward her.

"Go, Anna! I'll get her! I'm faster!" the soldier shouted with finality, Elsa hoping his sound argument would make the princess reconsider taking unnecessary risks.

And she wasn't even surprised to find her still running at his side.

_Darn it, Anna…_

The two reached her in a flash.

"I'm not going anywhere," Anna said with a smile.

Elsa got up in time with Garret and Anna's help, resuming her frenzied run across her own construction. A block of crystal fell to their right, shattering on the floor with a loud crash that drew an involuntary cry from them three.

On the outside, Einar stopped just after the stairs' final step, ensuring that everyone got out safely. Taking a look at the castle's top, he noticed two large uneven wholes near the tip. He checked his men, seeing that everyone was safely out. Everyone except the two most important.

A third blast was heard. A blazing fireball flew over their heads. It landed with a deafening crack just in front of the main gates, severing the staircase's bridge to the castle. Just as the three remaining people inside took a step into the fresh afternoon's sunlight, the support for the staircase ceded under the suddenly added weight, breaking down into a million shards of crystal falling toward the gaping pit under them, taking the only way out of the castle with them. Elsa heard a sickening thud and felt her stomach turn as the platform they were standing on dangerously started to give way.

Einar was standing on the other side, his eyes wide with disbelief. Kristoff was kneeling at his left, jerking his hands towards his family at the edge of the cliff.

"Jump!" he desperately screamed. "I'll catch you!"

Anna was down as well, evaluating the distance. "We'll try!" she shouted back.

_That's too far._

Elsa forgot how to feel fear. Clarity opening her mind, she turned to face reality. Her magic wasn't instantaneous. It would take too long to rebuild a complete bridge.

_Not mentioning that since the castle's leaning away from the mountain, it will break right then and there. We're not going to make it. I can take the fall, but…_

She exchanged a quick glance with Garret. He too had a small smile. In that split second, she understood he had reached the same conclusion. She brought her hands up, forming the most solid ice she'd ever form into an elongated shape inspired by the multiple blocks she had seen earlier while Garret constructed what looked like a heavy longbow.

The ground under her shook again, this time with a thunderous rumble. Some pebbles detached from the mountain side, falling towards the obscurity below.

Elsa winded her creation onto her sister's hips and handed Garret the open end to attach to himself and the arrow he had just summoned. Chuckling at Anna's puzzled expression, she radiantly smiled.

"I will be right back," she simply stated. A quick whistle was heard as the arrow was fired.

"No… Wai—!" Anna's breath was cut with the pull the heavy projectile drew on her waist.

With that, the floor gave in, Elsa feeling her heart lift from its place.

As she fell to the dark void beneath, she heard Anna's call for her name.

* * *

_So soft._

Slowly drifting back to consciousness, Elsa lightly smiled at the cushioned sensation. Opening her eyes little by little, she was greeted by a familiar pure white. Gently lifting her head from where it was lying, she lightly shook it to get rid of the faint traces of powder on her hair. She turned her gaze around, glancing at the thick blanket of snow surrounding her. She looked down to see that her entire body down from her chest was embedded underneath.

_Oh, right._

She lifted her eyes up. Not able to discern her castle's former contour, she deduced the fall had been quite long. That had worked in her favor, allowing her to create enough snow to halt her speeding acceleration towards the ground.

 _I hope they're all right,_ she thought. _We were lucky Garret was with us._

With a quick snap, she dissolved the solidified water, making herself fall off a few inches. She stood up, quickly checking herself for any injury.

_Now, how to find my way ba…_

She hadn't finished her thought when a groan reached her ear from the side. Bringing her gaze to the source of the noise, her heart skipped a beat when she made out the crimson hair and the fur cloak lying in a small crater.

"Garret?!"

Another grunt answered her call.

_What is he doing here?_

With disbelieving eyes, she noticed another trace of red on the left side of his lower back. The problem was that a sharp chunk of crystal ice was protruding from that same location.

"Garret!"

She ran to his side, kneeling next to him. She quickly peeked at the wound, wincing when the man let out another pained grunt. She couldn't handle looking at it for long, the blade had reached deep within his body.

She hovered her hand over the piece, trying to melt it off. To her dismay, her attempt was completely ineffective.

_Again?_

She caught a little movement from the corner of her eyes. Garret had started shuffling on his spot, trying to stand upright.

"Wh… Oooow!" he grimaced.

"Hey, hey! Don't move!" Elsa warned, concern plastered all over her features. "You're injured!"

He was heavily breathing, tears of pain starting to form in his eyes. "Ho-How is it looking?"

Elsa would have minced words if it wasn't for the adrenaline. "Bad… It's... I think it's a fragment of the staircase…"

"Blasted…" he cursed, closing his eyes. "This one is going to hurt like a bitch…"

Forgetting her situation for a tiny moment, Elsa gasped at his second use of vulgarity. Garret quickly eyed her.

"Sorry," he immediately apologized.

 _We've got other things to worry about,_ Elsa thought.

"Why are you down here?" she reproachfully asked.

"I… thou–the plan was to save Anna?" he answered with difficulty, obviously struggling to keep his mind focused.

"Anna _and you_!"

"Next time we ha—we have two seconds to decide, we'll get the planning blackboard…"

_I thought… How is that fair?_

Elsa she was on the verge of responding with a lot more vigor.

"No use in arguing now," Garret interrupted the unspoken. "I'm going to ne-need your help, Your Majesty," he muttered, his gaze a tiny bit more concentrated. "And I will need you to remain calm. We must get rid of it first."

"The shard… doesn't melt," she said, her heart breaking as she was brought back to the most pressing issue.

Garret sighed. "I figured… Then remove it, p-please," he demanded with another wince.

_What?_

"I… I can't!" Elsa blurted out as she scooted back a little, her eyes wide with the realization of what he was asking of her.

"Your Majesty...We don't have a choice, an-and we must act fast," he reiterated with a firm tone. Garret slightly lifted his head, mustering all the effort he could to look at Elsa over his shoulder, his breath short and heavy. "My life depends on it. Please."

_I… He'll…_

She steeled herself with a clench of her wrists. "All… All right." She closed in again, her gaze uneasy.

"Thank you," he appreciatively said, letting his head fall back. "When that thing's out—the wound will have to be cauterized. We don't have fire at hand, so-" His body writhed again. "-so frost will have to do."

_Frost?_

"It isn't a priority, but I wou-I would really appreciate a stick to bite on, please."

"How is it going to help?" Elsa's question was genuine.

"I… It would be a bit more bearable. For both of us, fo-for what it's worth."

Elsa frantically gave look around her surroundings, quickly finding a little wooden branch lying not far from where they had landed.

"There's one!"

She retrieved it in a hurry, passing it to Garret's mouth over his back. He latched onto it, his eyes already hollow from the lack of blood.

"It's… It's going to be alright, Garret! You're going to make it!" she tentatively encouraged, not really sure her tremor could somehow emanate confidence. He uttered a faint moan in acknowledgment.

Elsa got back to the wound, looking at the icy protuberance with shaking limbs. Forming a protective sheet on her hands, she grabbed its edges, ready to pull. He shivered at the simple contact—this was going to be excruciatingly painful for him.

"Are… Are you ready, Garret?" she asked, her voice quivering.

Another grunt answered her from across his body. Elsa closed her eyes and took a sharp breath, cutting her respiration. She then tugged, immediately eliciting a muffled scream of agony from the former soldier as his entire torso bent forward, as if trying to escape the pain. The blade started ripping off, slowly making its way out from the back it was intruding in with horrible cracks. The piece was embedded so deeply it took all of Elsa's strength to continue.

And then, with a quick snap, the bloody extremity came off, leaving the gaping laceration open. Tossing the stair chunk aside, a panting Elsa hurried forward with panicked eyes, immediately bringing her palms together over the wound. She concentrated, mist starting to form around the point of contact with Garret's back. The man, whose pained howls had stopped after the blade had been removed, started screaming once again, his extremities stiffened. A sickening hiss was emerging from the injury.

_Hang in there!_

The cries suddenly stopped, but Elsa still had to continue. Closing her eyes for the last part, she conjured a tourniquet inside Garret's back in the hopes that it would be enough to stop any open blood vessel the frost wouldn't have sealed shut.

 _That should do it…_ she told herself as she leaned back.

Lightly panting still, she checked on Garret's face in a hurry, only to find that his eyes were closed and that the stick he had been biting on was lying in front of him, unmoving on the grassy ground. The traces of his teeth were very much visible, trenched with the force of his agonizing pain. She very slowly put her hand before his open mouth, feeling the gentle passage of his cold breath over her fingers.

_He's unconscious._

She knew passing out from pain was possible.

With a delicate motion, she summoned crystal blocks that turned his body around so that he would lie on his back, leaving just enough space for his sealed wound to not be squished under his weight. She brought back her palms to her knees, her eyes following the slow and steady rise of his chest.

She suddenly choked up, the events of the previous half-hour catching up on her in a nauseating rush.

_Huh. No more danger._

And so, for the second time in a year, the Queen of Arendelle allowed her tears to flow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N: Told you we were going down to business.
> 
> I was told that asking for feedback in reviews could be a little counter-productive, so I won't be doing that starting from now. I, however, won't be bothered at all by them -the reviews- if only to discuss things :D
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	7. Hate

Elsa waited for her own sniffles to die out without a single word. Her heart was coming back to its usual rhythm, making it easier for her to gradually breathe at a normal pace. She slowly lifted her hands, the stains of Garret's blood marring her fingers already starting to turn brown. With a disgusted hiccup, Elsa solidified the red liquid and let the macabre ice fall to the ground. She scooted back again with terror-filled eyes, sensing her heartrate rise up once more. Intently watching the injured man before her, she tried to calm herself down.

_He would have died._

Elsa had had very little experience dealing with open wounds in her lifetime, much less an injury as severe as this one. The sheer luck that the woman who could cool things to freezing levels with her bare hands had been the one to fall with him was what had saved Garret. She heaved a sigh that would have made Anna's yawns sound like gentle whispers.

Letting her fingers run above her closed eyelids, she reasoned out loud.

"He's alive. No sense in worrying about anything else than bringing him back to the castle."

She lifted her eyes to the sky and allowed the brisk summer breeze to caress her smooth skin, her heart wringing at the thoughts of her ice castle smashed to steaming smithereens.

_At least we managed to get everyone out of there._

The good news still wasn't enough to untie the knot in her chest. The purest manifestation of her liberating rush was now merely reflecting the glossy sunlight on the ground before her.

Everything about her sunk—her shoulders, her breath, everything—and she sighed again.

Elsa got up to her feet, silently wondering about how to make the journey back with an unconscious man on her arms. She neared the slumbering soldier, hugging herself closely and stroking her own arm as she evaluated her options.

_There's no way I would be able to lift him alone._

Garret wasn't as enormous as Kristoff, but he still easily looked like he could weigh 175 pounds. She briefly pictured herself carrying his unmoving body over her shoulders, quickly tossing the—ridiculous—image aside. Suddenly remembering that she had ice powers, she considered constructing a makeshift sleigh.

 _It's not a bad idea,_ she told herself _. I can create some frost in front of us for traction. I'll just have to make sure he's stable and doesn't dangle too much inside._

Nodding to herself, Elsa took a few steps back and waved her hand in front of her. The comforting and familiar sensation of warm tingling that crossed her arms brought a smile to the queen's face, despite the less-than-ideal situation. A bright column gently rose under Garret, lifting his unconscious body up while Elsa confectioned a sled about half the size of her future brother-in-law's brand-new speedster around him. As per usual with her creations, she was meticulous, cushioning Garret's injured side with snow so that he wouldn't be in a world of hurt should he awake.

As soon as she was done, she quickly positioned herself at the front of the icy vehicle, ready to go. However, at the exact instant she cast the first snowflakes, she perceived a soft whisper emerge from behind her, undulating in a gentle melody Elsa had never heard before.

She immediately turned around, hastily hopping off to the slowly recovering man's side. His squinting gaze was jumping here and there on her face, not really recognizing her.

"Ma?"

'Ma' lightly smiled. "No, Garret. It's me. It's Elsa."

His eyelids opened fully, letting him gradually get used to the strange sensation of progressively getting his brain functions back. He quickly blinked before bringing his tired eyes to meet hers.

"Huh… I passed out?" His voice was low, barely above a murmur.

"You did. You stayed unconscious for a few minutes there. How are you feeling?"

"Like an elephant is walking all over my back," he answered with a strained groan. "But it's not hurting that much anymore."

Elsa breathed a sigh of relief. "I was worried the ice would numb everything."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'm feeling things all right," he said with a wince as he straightened his position. "But this is quite the comfortable seat. I've got to thank you for taking care of that injury, your Majes—" He interrupted himself when he got a proper look at Elsa's face. "Are you… Did you cry?" he asked with furrowed brows and a concerned tone.

_Does it still show?_

"I… I just sat through the end of my adrenaline rush," she answered, bringing her head lower with every word. Elsa started wiping her cheeks with her wrists under Garret's sympathetic gaze.

"I'm sorry…" she heard him mutter.

"What are you apologizing for?" she asked with a small smile.

He chuckled lightly, lowering his eyes too. He let her finish cleaning her face up before speaking again. "I know that is never a pleasant time. It may not feel right on the spot, but crying is very good, it helps tremendously release the tension."

Elsa shrugged, unconvinced by the utility of falling into uncontrollable sobs at such a moment. "I am all kinds of relieved, now. Thank you, tears," she said, her voice thick with irony.

At her surprise, Garret let out one of his toothy laughs that made him look so much younger.

 _How come he doesn't always look like that?_ she wondered.

He seemed to regret his jovial outburst; he immediately brought his right hand to clutch his left side with a few coughs. "Ouch! Please, don't make me laugh… It seriously feels like my diaphragm's going to burst out."

Elsa slightly perked up with concern. "Is it?"

"No, Your Majesty. That was… Nevermind. It's fine." He stayed silent for a few instants. "Besides, I would have been a bit more worried if you hadn't cried, actually. I don't want to make assumptions, but a queen rarely has the opportunity to fall a few hundred feet just after her ice castle was bombarded off a cliff."

Elsa's heart fell at the mention of her former house of solitude. _The Duke… He got to my castle. If it's personal revenge he seeks out, Arendelle's not in immediate danger, but if he has such powerful cannons at his disposal…_ She'd have to discuss this with everyone back home.

Garret's voice broke her out of her thoughts. "You were calm and collected, I'm honestly impressed. I very certainly owe you my life. That is some serious debt we are talking about."

Before she answered, Elsa got up to the front seat and resumed her frost making, prompting the sleigh to gently start drifting away.

"We rather owe that to the fact you knew exactly what to do. I wouldn't have been that effective had I been constrained to improvise on the spot," she corrected with a stoic look, but not without a slight flush on her face. Her eyes were now focused on the track ahead.

"You are selling yourself short."

"Maybe I am… But now that I think about it, I thought soldiers didn't receive more than the basic first-aid gestures? Or was it a knight's privilege?" Elsa was mostly talking to herself at that point.

"Your Majesty," he called with a lifted eyebrow. "You're really making this 'knight' thing into something a lot larger than it actually is. In the Order of the Bath, knights are ranked. At my level they're basically soldiers with a fancy title. We're handed a token, a kiss on each shoulder from a sword, and we're waved goodbye for practically ever with Her Majesty's most esteemed gratitude as our only prize to bring home."

_Then… It doesn't make sense, does it?_

Ignoring the timing, Elsa still inquired further. "So, how did you know how to treat the wound?" she asked.

The answer to her own question seemed to pop into her head as soon as she pronounced it.

Garret's dejected voice responded before she could say anything. "Let's call it… work experience."

The memory of his frozen prosthesis pictured itself in her mind. Elsa glanced back at her passenger, seeing—as expected—that his gaze was fixated on his left leg. The luminous laugh had disappeared, replaced by the usual tired look.

"I'm sorry," she uttered.

He threw a smile at her, but Elsa could clearly see it was a lot less ecstatic than the previous one. "What are you apologizing for?"

She turned around and responded with a slight shrug. "I don't know. It felt… wrong, not to do it."

"Well, it wasn't your fault, innit? It was my own."

A heavy silence followed.

Elsa had never been a people person. She loved her country, her subjects, her family; but she really never had to spend extended periods of time with strangers. She never tried to get to know anybody outside of her strongly established circle; reclusion tended to mess with that ability. Elsa was happy with things as they were, but, during the course of the last year, Anna had made it one of her missions to get her sister to progressively open up at least a tiny bit to those who weren't herself, Olaf or Kristoff, and it had somewhat worked. Giving a speech like she had done the day before would have been impossible for Great Thaw Elsa. One of her first lessons had been that lending an ear was the basis of establishing a connection. To her surprise, even when they were not in her court, Arendelle's citizens were more than happy to share everything they knew with her. She still had a lot of work to do on that aspect and others, yet this was another opportunity to help someone by the simple act of listening.

Nonetheless, offering it for the people she saw every day was a thing. This was something else entirely.

 _He helped me save Anna. Twice. What's the harm?_ she reassured herself.

Elsa uneasily shifted on her spot, lightly coughing into her knuckle. "Do you…?" she whispered.

"I didn't quite catch that, Your Majesty."

"Do you want to talk about it?" she repeated, louder.

For a little while, the screeching of the sleigh's skates and the crisp howl of the wind were the only sounds that reached Elsa's eardrums. Her heart started beating imperceptibly faster.

"I really appreciate the offer, Your Majesty. But that won't be necessary," Garret finally said.

A singular heat crept down her chest with an uncomfortable weight. Disappointment. Elsa was surprised she felt that. Then again, this was the first time anyone had declined her invitation to talk.

She tried not to show it through her voice. "As… as you wish."

A few minutes of voiceless riding later, Elsa heard a rumbling sound coming from the sleigh's sides. Throwing a quick glance to the verdant woods around her, she saw nothing. While familiar, she couldn't really pinpoint where she knew it from.

"Umm, Your Majesty?" an anxious Garret called from behind. "Please tell me you can secretly bend earth too."

Not understanding the remark, Elsa turned to face him, only for her to notice huge grassy rocks rolling in their trail.

"Trolls! What are they doing here?" she exclaimed.

"Trolls?" Garret repeated with a dumbfounded expression.

Anna had talked about them and Elsa vividly remembered meeting them herself the fated day she had hurt her sister for the first time. She stopped the sleigh, the trolls twirling around to their humanoid form in front of her.

"Your Majesty, Elsa," the heavy creatures said in unison, bowing before her. She returned the gesture. "Gran Pabbie felt an uncomfortable disturbance in your powers and sent us to escort you to the Valley of the Living Rock."

Garret's eyes were as wide as when he had discovered the ice castle. "Of all the… Talking rocks, now?"

Elsa squared her shoulders and clasped her hands before her, surprise clear on her features. The trolls never reached out—what had changed?

"Why does he want me now?"

"He thinks you're in danger. Bad men are patrolling around Arendelle. They are looking for you," one of the trolls answered.

Elsa's thoughts immediately flew to her sister. "What about Anna and Kristoff? They were still at the castle!"

"Some of us were sent to them instead. They should be in Arendelle by now. They were told that you are alive and well." He gave a quick glance inside the sleigh. "For the most part…"

Elsa's heaved a heavy sigh, her shoulders slightly falling. Her mind was somewhat eased for the time being.

Another troll spoke. "We will offer you shelter while the men search these woods. In time, Arendelle's Guard will drive them away, but since they didn't find you…"

"They'll think I did not perish at the castle and continue looking for me…" Elsa finished.

_That… holds up. But, Garret..._

"Gran Pabbie can also help heal the weird-looking Kristoff you have here," a younger one added while pointing to the man as if reading Elsa's thoughts.

Garret puffed. "And they're trash-talking…"

Elsa faced him once again with a contained giggle. "Shall we, Garret?" she asked, somehow already knowing his answer.

The former soldier rapidly blinked. "I'm going to trust you again on this one, Your Majesty," he said, eliciting an appreciative nod.

"Let's go, then."

* * *

The voyage was quick; with the trolls rolling before it, nothing came to hinder the sleigh's trajectory. The swift trip allowed Elsa to calmly sit back, thinking to herself as she quietly recalled the events of the last hour. Quickly skimming through her exchange with the injured soldier behind her, there had been something different than usual.

_Why didn't he want to talk?_

She would normally just sit tight and listen. But not this time.

There had been something odd about Garret. Something Elsa hadn't admitted to Anna. She'd felt… comfortable around him, even after all that happened. The fleeting complicity they shared the day she had learned he was like her she attributed to the joy that had surged through her at the news that she wasn't alone. Elsa had stuck to a proud and solemn behavior with him the very day after. Except for his mastery of the bow and his seemingly obnoxious tendency to stick his nose wherever he could—and well, the obvious ice magic—the man had seemed unspectacular. Nevertheless, she realized that for the moments she spent with him, she hadn't really been the Snow Queen of Arendelle.

Much like with Kristoff, Anna and Olaf, she had simply been Elsa—whoever that was—in everything but in how he called her. It felt like he had been in Arendelle for more than just a few days.

Was it the way he talked? His honest laugh? Much like Anna herself, he had been approachable.

The irony of a queen thinking a commoner approachable drew a short sigh out of her lungs. She needed to work on her social skills.

A peculiar thought occurred to her.

_I still have to ask him why he came to the kingdom in the first place._

A voice boomed before the grand pass that had suddenly appeared in her line of sight. "Gran Pabbie! They're here!"

They had reached the trolls' rocky and uneven grounds in no time.

The thousand-years old Gran Pabbie gently rolled out of his cavern, turning back into his elderly body when he reached the entrance of his Valley, where Elsa stood next to her crystal-clear sleigh. Her eyes were low, her hair slightly disheveled and her dress was stained here and there. She must have looked tired.

"Welcome, Queen Elsa. I felt your fear manifest when you cloaked yourself. I am very sorry for what happened," he greeted, his face visibly sad. "I also thought you'd like to know Princess Anna and Kristoff, as well as the men accompanying them, reached Arendelle Castle safely."

"I thank you… I'm sorry, when I cloaked myself?" she questioningly responded, not really seeing what he was talking about.

"Yes, although now that you are closer, I am having this strange feeling that you are projecting some of your powers over there…" Gran Pabbie said while looking toward the pass that marked the entry point to his territory, his eye twitching as if he had just eaten a particularly spicy pickle.

The finely tuned gears in Elsa's head quickly pieced together what the sage troll was referring to. "Oh! That would be Garret!" She brought the sleigh closer to her with a quick motion, letting him have a peek at the laying person inside. "He arrived in Arendelle a few days ago. He can bend ice to his will, just like I do."

Garret waved, his already faint voice uneasy. "Hello?"

Gran Pabbie's features stiffened with a noise akin to a pebble hitting the ground while his eyebrows shot to the sky. He took a long look at the injured man. "There's another one?"

"Yes, and he needs medical attention. He suffered a terrible wound and I'm afraid I won't be able to reach Arendelle in time. Could you please help him?" Elsa asked with a pleading tone.

Releasing a sigh, Gran Pabbie nodded and signaled to a few trolls behind him to come closer. The ones who answered the call rushed at his side, gently lifting Garret from his iced mattress.

"I will try. Though I am most proficient with magical wounds, I'll see what I can do." Gran Pabbie strode forward, examining the man's red-stained back. "Hmmm, this is indeed very severe. You lost a substantial amount of blood…" Garret closed his eyes with a crestfallen wince, while Elsa clenched her palms together behind her and bit her lip in worry. "… but fortunately for you, young man, no important organ was hit. I can help mend it, but it won't completely heal on the spot. And you will still require extensive rest for a few weeks."

Leaving the two children of ice to look at each other with relieved breaths escaping their lungs, the sage brought his hand to the injury and started working his healing magic on the wound, focusing his entire being on his task as a brilliant yellow light emerged from his fingertips and seeped into Garret's back.

"I am lucky, aren't I?" Garret said to no one in particular as he began dozing off.

Elsa lightly shrugged in response. Her small smile was indicating enough, she hoped.

"I'm… definitely, feeling better…" the soldier said, his sentence interrupted by a long yawn. He closed his eyes another time, his deep breaths showing he had let a comfortable slumber take him into its embrace.

Gran Pabbie made a few steps back. "It is done. This takes a non-negligible toll on his body, so I took the liberty of conjuring a sleeping spell on him. He needs all the rest he can get," he solemnly announced.

Elsa tilted her head forward with a thankful smile. "That was a good idea." The troll nodded, but Elsa could detect a slight tinge of anxiousness in his gaze, similarly to the day he had explained how her powers could hurt her. "Is everything okay?" she asked sincerely.

The elder troll slowly stroked his chin while looking down. "I… Maybe we should speak, my child," he answered with an enigmatic frown. He gave a sharp nod toward the deep end of the sacred grounds, prompting her to follow him to his quarters. She turned an anxious gaze to the sleeping man at her feet.

"He'll be fine; they'll take care of him."

An enthusiastic "Yeah!" echoed in the Valley.

Nodding in understanding, Elsa stepped behind Gran Pabbie. Once the entrance to his cavern reached, she stopped with a quizzical expression.

_How am I going to go through something like that?_

The opening in the rock was suited for a troll—which meant that even a human child would have trouble getting past. Gran Pabbie simply waved his hands, the rocks rearranging on their own to grant the taller human safe passage through. Slightly chuckling, Elsa stepped in—she still had to duck to avoid hitting her head on the wet surface. Her smile immediately disappeared once her eyes got used to the dim fire that gently blazed within. She couldn't prevent her lower jaw from falling.

The cavern was nothing like what she had expected. In fact, even the word cavern wasn't paying what she was seeing justice. Cultivated garden would have been more appropriate.

The plants were large—the water they required surely would have kept all of Arendelle's needs satisfied for a few months. Still, they were marvelous. Instead of mundane browns and white, the intricate and beautiful patterns were of deeper, more vibrant colors—shades of red, orange, and yellow, with the colors concentrated in their leaves. The air felt cool, and the rustling of the branch coupled with the fire's crackle was soothing.

Gran Pabbie interrupted her silent awe. He was sitting near what looked like a jagged and stony desk. "Elsa, I would like to discuss a serious matter with you."

Closing her mouth, she sat down on her knees not far from him. "Please do."

"You are aware that I am able to see and manipulate memories…" She nodded at that. "Well, it is a direct consequence of my innate sensitivity to magic. It is not something I can control at my leisure when I use other forms of that magic. Sometimes, when I'm healing someone, for example, I get little snippets of that particular being's memories." He was looking at Elsa with a grave expression.

She caught the dropped hints. "Did you…? When you stitched his wound?"

"I didn't stitch it, per se, but you would be correct. It is especially striking when the being in question is capable of magic feats itself. In fact, in that case, it is as if I was there, living their memories with them. And it usually happens to be the more vivid parts of their life experience."

Elsa remembered the episode that had puzzled her back in her ice castle. "I think I experienced something very similar to that, today," she confessed. "I promised to teach Garret how to better control his powers, and when I grabbed an arrow he had created, I was… transported somewhere I didn't recognize." She paused before continuing. "Was I…?"

Gran Pabbie nodded sadly. "Indeed, my child. Though your situation isn't exactly the same—your experience was the fruit of your powers interacting with his. You see, water has a memory. It was before me, it will still be after all of us. It watches everything, stores what it deems worthy. That arrow must have been charged with his emotions. Your magic does the same thing. To keep it simple, you tapped into the memories of the water he used to create it."

Elsa brought her hands in front of her mouth. "The pyre, the woods, the village… Those were his memories?" she wondered aloud, as the horrifying smell, insufferable heat and animalistic grunt slithered their way back into her mind.

Gran Pabbie somberly acquiesced once again. "I can only affirm you and I have simply caught a glimpse. However, child: I have to warn you. What I saw was not a hefty grasp of what he had to live through either… but I could get a significant sense of the different emotions he endured. He has gone through horrible things, that is for sure. I sensed grief, sadness and sorrow plenty. I also managed to discern happiness, pride, and love." He took an inspiration, looking Elsa in the eye. "Yet, I perceived darker feelings. Rage, anger, bloodlust. He has also done things as horrible as those inflicted on him, if not more so."

Elsa's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

"I'm afraid he is red with blood not his own."

Elsa's already pale face dropped its color even more. She shook her head. "He… he told me he was a soldier…" She hadn't even thought to associate his time in the army with the idea that he maybe had had to kill someone, somewhere, sometime. "He seems so… incapable of doing that."

"How would you know? More importantly, a soldier doesn't feel joy nor relief when facing death." The sage troll took another long breath. "Here is what concerns me the most. I can understand shame and guilt in someone. Those are natural emotions. The problem with your companion is that they are the last bits of emotion that shone within him, with only faint specks of anything else like laughter and fear scattered here and there. He is otherwise mostly numb to everything. Only one other has overshadowed them."

Elsa didn't know whether she wanted to know. She still asked. "Which one is it?"

Gran Pabbie sighed, his discovery visibly saddening to him. "Hate."

Elsa lifted her eyebrows. In the last days, she certainly didn't see him being hateful toward anyone. "Hate? Who does he hate?"

 _Maybe Einar? But Einar did nothing wrong… and they barely spoke._ _He isn't a moody child… Is he?_

Gran Pabbie sighed once again. "This man hates himself."

Elsa's heart fell together with her hands. "Himself? Why?"

"That I cannot say. And it is unfortunately impossible for us to know unless he decides to open that part of him to us. Now, I do not know why or how, but he may not be who he shows himself to be. The memories we saw were morphed through the prism of how we see the world. His vision might be radically different. In the end, I still cannot say who he is at his core, and that is why I have to tell you to watch out. His veritable persona can very well be a ruthless warmonger for all we know. And that's who he might resent so much. Or he despises the mask he has to wear… Only he can answer that."

Elsa quickly glanced toward the cavern's entrance. "He doesn't show any of it."

"You didn't either," Gran Pabbie said with a sad smile. That sentence felt like a stab through the heart with a red-hot knife. "People can get quite adept at hiding who they really are," he added, his eyes empty as he recalled the worst advice he'd ever given.

Trying the best she could to keep the pictures of her isolated upbringing in the darkest parts of her mind, Elsa lowered her gaze.

 _He hates himself… and I told him his powers were a part of him as they were of me._ _No wonder he suppresses them,_ she thought, remembering the conclusion she had reached earlier in the afternoon.

"He's exactly like I was a year ago."

"That may not be entirely true…" Gran Pabbie's voice called her back to reality. She turned to face him. "There is still another singular aspect to this man I wish to disclose." Noticing the curious frown that appeared on Elsa's face, the chief troll continued, the yellow crystals on his garment dangling with the flow of his green cape. "His powers are of a different essence than yours. They both ultimately function in a similar fashion, because there aren't that many ways to create ice, but his are of a peculiar origin."

Elsa's thirst for knowledge abruptly spiked. "How different can they be?"

"Your powers were a gift, Elsa. You were born with them. That is the reason your hair and your complexion are as they are. His powers, on the other hand, were bestowed upon him much later."

Elsa sharply inhaled. _How did I not even notice that?_

"I assume he is far from being as efficient as you are with them?"

"That… seems to be the case."

"It is understandable. Just like knowledge, the later it is learned, the more difficult it becomes to master."

Elsa sat in silent contemplation, slowly letting the entire conversation sink in.

A loud call interrupted her thoughts, its melodious yet restless echo reaching her in the cavern. "Elsaaaa!"

She got up to her feet in a hurry, sprinting out of the lush interior garden to see her sister and Kristoff standing near Garret's laying silhouette with hanged cheeks and pursed lips, worry clear on their faces' traits. An entire contingent of Arendelle's guards was behind them, still led by Einar.

"Anna!"

The princess's eyes filled with tears the moment she caught sight of Elsa. Opening her arms wide, she let the queen's small frame crash into her with a happy sob. Kristoff joined their embrace shortly after, bringing his arms around the two siblings. They stayed locked together for a while.

"I swear to whatever’s holy out there… don't you dare do that to me again…" Anna whispered, stepping back to take a long look at Elsa's face. She hiccupped again, wiping her sister's face with her thumbs. "'I'll be right back'… Geez…"

Elsa embarrassedly blushed and laughed. "That was… the heat of the moment."

Catching a glimpse of the body on the ground brought Anna back to the immediate problem. "But what's the matter with Garret?" she tensely asked.

"He was seriously injured during the fall," Elsa answered, her heart sinking to her stomach. "He's not in immediate danger but we still have to bring him to the castle. He needs rest, and I need to speak with Jürden," she added with a determined glint in her eyes.

Both Anna and Kristoff exchanged a quick look and sharply nodded. "Let's go," they vigorously asserted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this one!
> 
> I kept a weekly update schedule until now, but I think I'll start posting chapters every second week, always on Saturdays. I'll also tone down the ANs to keep the story's flow as intact as possible.
> 
> See you next time.
> 
> Peace,  
> CalAm.


	8. Calm

A long-haired man stood amidst the debris, silently observing the resting place of what had been described to him as a wonder among wonders.

_Shit._

The target had escaped. Her abomination of a castle laid in shambles before him, yet the target had escaped. Knuckles clenched from the anger that pulsed inside him, he slowly let all his frustration escape out through deep breaths from his lungs. He faced his sponsor with a glare that could have dug holes into the ground.

"What are you looking at me for? I expected you to get rid of her!" the pathetic little man shouted, his poorly attached wig jumping up with each of his childish hops. "You didn't! I paid you to bring me her head on a spike and she's still alive!"

"We agreed that no one else would die."

"Do I look like I give two shits about who dies? As long as she's one of them you can kill EVERYONE in that wretched kingdom for all I care!"

The dark-haired stranger sighed and flicked off a spit that had landed on his cheek with a gloved hand. "Calm down, you'll make that mustache fall off." He adjusted his long white coat over his shoulders, letting the golden symbol he was so proud of shine on his chest with a fiery glow. "I want her dead as much as you do. I want to see her _burn_. But no one else dies. Those were the terms." He lifted his eyes to the skies, where he was told the ice castle once stood. "This was a mistake; you shouldn't have fired. You're lucky that no one else died." He lowered his head, throwing a poised yet wrathful glance to the gunners fidgeting in the back of the glade. "Next time you fire without my permission—and I emphasize, _my_ permission—we're using your heads as bait for the wolves."

The men all gulped as they took a step back, cautiously creating as much space between him and them.

_Good reflex._

"What–" The bald cock-man annoyingly started grumbling, taking quick steps to come face to face with the man he had commissioned, staring up into his single dark-blue eye. "I did what you didn't have the guts to do! I made the right choice!"

Shoving away the nuisance with a push of a finger on his forehead, the one-eyed man spoke with an irked voice. "All you did was warn them that we were after them and waste nearly all of our heavy ammunition. We couldn't catch them on the road, so now they're probably going to hole her up in that highly defensible castle of theirs. Thank you very much. I wouldn't call that the 'right' choice. Calling it the 'moronic' choice would be an insult to all stupid people."

The former Duke of Weselton stepped back, his expression a mixture of shock and outrage. "How dare you—I'm the one giving orders here! I'm the one paying you!"

_I've had enough of this._

He let the small man continue with his rambling rant alone and turned his gaze to the messy ground beneath him. A glimmer flickering in the middle of the pile of glass-cutting ice caught his eye.

_What is this?_

Ignoring the insufferable gawking at his back, he stepped forward and cleared the debris, slowly unveiling a fine dagger with a familiar seal etched onto its grip which he recognized with a wide eye. He lightly grabbed it while dusting its edges, carefully turning it around a few times in his hands. The man closely examined the blade, looking for a particular engraving near the tip.

"… the humiliation–Hey! Are you listening to me?" the duke squeaked from behind him.

"No, I'm not," he answered in his croaky deep voice. The duke's angry words turned to gibberish as he shunned him out once again, letting his mind focus on what he was hoping to find.

_There it is._

**_AoL._** The small letters were traced with as much elegance as the engraving tools had allowed, their curves following the dagger's refined blade like foam traveling with the tide.

Three letters that meant this particular contract had just gone from the second to first most interesting he'd ever had the chance to accept. A large smile found its way to his lips while his fingers slowly grazed the eyepatch that covered the left side of his face.

_Two for the price of one? This is my lucky day._

"What the hell are you looking at, Roger?" his lieutenant asked as he came close.

Roger proudly stood up in his Maker's light and sighed in contentment, rejoicing in a euphoric moment of gratefulness. "An opportunity from the Lord to correct a mistake."

* * *

"We'll take it from here, Your Majesty!"

Arendelle Castle's nurses took Garret's sleeping body from the sleigh, transferring it into a simple wool stretcher to get him into the building's main hall as quickly as possible.

"Be careful!" Anna called, though the nurses had already started striding in the red-draped corridors, heading toward the guest room they'd have to furnish for medical care with trained and fast steps.

"He's going to be okay," Elsa said, her eyes following the injured soldier's convoy until they disappeared behind a corner. The sentence had been intended for Anna, yet she strangely had felt the need to hear it too.

Anna's tight and anxious gaze softened a tiny bit. "He'd better be. He's not going anywhere before I give him an earful as big as the one you're about to get."

Elsa sighed. "I don't see how that's going to help…"

Her sister crossed her arms, very clearly displeased. "It helps my nerves and that's all that matters."

Jürden appeared on the right side of the courtyard, climbing the last stairs that led up from the Guard's barracks. "Honor to you, Your Majesty," he greeted in his usual proud and relaxing tone. "I am glad you were able to make it here. Captain Einar already reported everything to me."

Elsa slightly tilted her head in a returned greeting as the synchronal noise of clicking heels indicated that the troops behind her had saluted. "Sir Jürden. I must thank you for being so swift. Without your warning, we would have found ourselves in a predicament worse than the already worrisome one we have to deal with."

The counselor bowed. "I simply did my job, excellency. Might I request a quick audience? It is of the utmost importance."

"Please proceed," Elsa invited with a nod. He stepped to the side, allowing the royal family inside and sending the troops back to the barracks with a motion of his hand.

The gentle flicker of the torches around them drew dancing shadows over the gloomy portraits in the corners of the immense room.

"We managed to scare the intruders away," he explained while they walked into the decorated interior. "Some of my scouts will come back with a detailed report later on, but it seems we're dealing with an organized group. They were wearing specific armorial bearings which one of my men could scrutinize in relative detail. He's transcribing it as we speak and I'll help identify it personally."

Elsa brought her left hand to her temple, letting her elbow rest on top of her right arm. She was doing her best to follow his train of thought. "So, the duke has acquired the services of another mercenary group?"

"That is what we're led to believe for now. Though this one appears to be better equipped and have larger numbers."

Kristoff stepped forward with his arms crossed and his brows furrowed. Elsa had not seen him wear an expression so serious since the whole Hans debacle. "What about the cannons they used on the castle? That stuff only comes from the south, doesn't it? Only armies pack things like that."

Einar was the one to respond. "I'm not really sure… Even the best cannons available now do not exceed the 1500-yard range." He shook his head. "The most logical conclusion is that they weren't fired from a ship but on land."

"Since they're so close, why not just track them down?" Anna asked, her eyebrows almost reaching her hairline.

_It's not always so simple._

"We got our bearings too late, and the priority was to ensure Arendelle's close perimeter was safe. They had enough time to scrap everything and disappear."

 _Nevermind that. We have to keep our priorities straight,_ Elsa thought.

"With that kind of weaponry, wouldn't it be safer to evacuate the city?" she asked with her best attempt at an authoritative voice. Her tiredness was starting to chip away at her ability to focus.

"Actually, quite the contrary, my queen," Jürden answered. "Arendelle's situation within the fjord opens little possibility for land artillery to position itself in a truly menacing manner. Since the ground around us only goes up, they'd need a ship, which we would see coming long before they entered shooting range. It would be better to keep everyone within the ramparts."

"Very well. And I assume we're not to leave the castle for the time being?"

"That is correct. For the moment, I must encourage you to stay inside these walls. The entire city will receive a note explaining the situation."

Elsa and Anna simultaneously sighed.

The princess ran her hands through her crimson locks while clenching her jaw. "So, for now, we're running on the hope that someone recognizes a symbol scribbled down from memory and nothing else?" Both Einar and Jürden nodded. "Great," she huffed.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness."

"Oh no! I didn't… I mean, it's not your fault. This is incredibly frustrating."

"It is indeed, ma'am. On another topic, majesty, I would like to come back to the personal guard issue..."

_Not surprising. And not wrong…_

"I was anticipating it, Sir Jürden. I'll… agree to whomever you choose," Elsa conceded. Her counselor's eyes perked up with relief. She answered with a small smile of her own.

"Thank you, majesty."

Both Jürden and Einar bowed, excusing themselves as they retreated to their quarters downstairs, their capes leaving a trail of gold and red behind them.

Elsa watched them disappear down the staircase. She stood in the middle of the hall, silently processing the day's events. Hugging herself tightly, she shuddered.

_They got to them… because of me._

The feeling of a tiny hand on her shoulder jerked her up. "Hey there…" Anna called with a warm smile. "We're going to check on Garret. Wanna come?"

Elsa played with her fingers for a bit. "I would like a word in private before that, Anna," she said with one of her characteristic quick shrugs.

Anna didn't drop her smile. She gave Elsa a short nod, turning around to face Kristoff. "We'll be with you in a bit." The man acquiesced without another word, grinning in acknowledgment.

"No, actually. He can stay too…" Elsa corrected, her stance tensed and her traits uneasy.

"Okay," Kristoff responded as he closed the distance with the siblings and put his hand over Anna's shoulder with an anxious gaze.

Elsa shuffled on her spot, her eyes darting from one to the other. "Anna, I… Well, this isn't easy to say… I was thinking about–" She stopped. Her racing heart felt like a madman was hammering a drum in the middle of her chest. Not able to keep her gaze focused on the two most important people in her life, she looked away.

Anna patted Kristoff's hand with her own, tilting her head to the side to get a better look at her sister's face. "You can talk to us, you know that. Just pour it out."

_Say it once. Just once. It'll be nice and smooth._

"I… I want you to–If it ever comes down to–" Elsa drew a long breath, lifting her eyes up to meet her family's. "If we're ever in an ambush, or in a place where we have to fight or die… I want you to run away. Both of you."

Anna dropped her hand from where it had been resting. She looked like she had just been slapped across the face. "What–"

Elsa cleared her throat, straightening her back in hopes that she would appear more assertive. "I want you to run away and never look back. I can handle myself with my powers."

Her sister's eyes substantially widened, her cheeks reddening in disbelief. "No, no, no, no, no… You're not pulling that one on me again!" She took a few steps back, her brows furrowing progressively as she moved.

Elsa had to make a point. She brought her hands in front of her chest, her knuckles white from how much she was squeezing them. "I'm serious, Anna!"

Anna blinked rapidly as if refusing to believe a single word that reached her ear. She straightened her position with a clutch of her fists, her face looking like a storm cloud ready to explode. "Because I look like I'm joking, is that it? And your little stunt at your castle? That wasn't a joke?"

Never had her tone been so aggressive, but Elsa stood her ground. "That's not fair! I wanted to save you!"

_Why doesn't she understand?_

"And what do you make of what _I_ want? Huh?" Anna answered while throwing her hands at her sides. "Do you think I wanted to see my sister fall off a cliff in front of me while I'm screaming her name? Do you think I wanted her to come back to me with a look of death on her face while I learn that the guy who was with her the whole time almost died from injury?"

Her angry eruption got Elsa to slightly back down. "Anna, I–"

Anna quickly closed in, firmly putting her hands on her sister's shoulders. "If we're ever in an ambush, you give us a sword or a snowball or whatever-the-schnot and we fight together! I don't care if I don't know how to, if it's fight or die, it's fight with you, or die with you," she affirmed, a fire burning in her glare like Elsa had never seen before.

She brought her own eyes to the side to see Kristoff nodding in agreement. "Kristoff, please…" she pleaded, praying that he would knock some sense into her sister.

The man shrugged, his trademark cocky half-grin proudly displayed on his face. "I'm sorry, Elsa. I'm going with the whatever-the-schnot too," he said.

Anna suddenly clutched Elsa into a fierce hug, the older sister releasing a breath as quickly as her crushed ribs allowed her to.

"You're my sister and I just got you back a year ago. I'm not going anywhere and you're not either. I know–today, you had to make a choice. I understand that. Of course, I'm grateful. To both you and Garret. It's just–" She stepped back again, the corner of her eyes twinkling with newfound tears. "You're asking me to give up on you. I can't do that. I could never do that. So, never talk about this again, okay?" she finished with a quivering voice and a sniffle.

Elsa pursed her lips as she scanned Anna's flushed visage. Her freckles almost seemed to disappear from the amount of red that had climbed up to her face.

_So much for going nice and smooth._

The lack of response apparently made for an acceptable answer in her sister's eyes, as she quickly dried her cheeks with another choke. "All right, now that that's settled, we're off to see Garret."

* * *

The nurses had chosen the largest room on the ground floor. Two guards were posted at its door, their posture alert and rigid.

"Hello Gustav, hello Alfonse," Anna greeted as soon as the three of them had reached the chamber's embrasure.

"Your Highness. Your Majesty," they curtly answered with a salute.

_She remembers all of their names…_

While definitely not forgetful, Elsa had never found the time nor the brain capacity to memorize all of the castle's staff's names. It amazed her all the more that Anna managed to be on friendly terms with absolutely everyone too.

Once inside, Elsa slightly squinted to adapt her pupils to the dim bedside lamp. Two nurses were busying themselves with putting all their instruments aside, the metallic tings of the clashing needles and stitches ringing in a soft timbre reminiscent of the bell tower at the top of Arendelle. Kai was standing to their side, his large body casting an even bigger shadow over Garret.

"Your Excellency!" he blurted out in surprise with a quick bow when he heard the door's handle lock into place. "I heard that–I was worried–" He paused, letting his unspoken emotions flash away. "I am relieved beyond words to see you safe," he finished as he stood back up. The chamberlain, of two royal generations' the tacit guardian, seemed on the verge of crying.

"Thank you, Kai," Elsa mumbled with a tender smile.

"Milady," the oldest of the two nurses said. "We performed a physical examination and it seems he's going to be all right. You said the blade reached deep, but it looks like the frost kept him from bleeding out. I don't know by what miracle, but everything had almost fully healed by the time we could intervene. With appropriate care and rest, it'll be a scar in a matter of days. He'll take two or three weeks to recover fully." She suddenly dropped her voice to a whisper. "However, Your Majesty, there's… _something else_ … that is very concerning."

Elsa's heart skipped a few beats. _They must have seen his leg._

She tried as much as she could to keep her composure intact. "Yes, I'm aware… It's a long story. Few people know of it, and I would like it to remain that way, please," she murmured back.

The nurse nodded, but Elsa could still discern a strange haze in her eyes. "Your wish is our command."

"Thank you, Greta," Anna uttered from the room's left corner. The two women and the castle's overseer exited the room in a hustled hurry, the door clicking after them as Kai's silhouette disappeared behind its wooden panels.

Garret's body was almost entirely covered by a light blanket, his long and deep breaths waving the fabric of the sheets with a gentle undulation.

Kristoff, who had been wearing a sympathetic wince until then, brought a hand to his chin. "They were talking about his powers? How did they figure it out?"

"I don't think they did," Elsa answered as she put back a strand of her platinum-blonde hair behind her ear.

"What were you talking about then?"

Elsa strolled to the bed's left side, slowly drinking into the moonlight that traversed the brittle curtains like a thousand rays of pure white sunshine. She drew a heavy breath, brought her hand to the closest corner of the blankets and gently lifted it, stepping aside to reveal a part of the crystal-clear ice that constituted Garret's left foot. "I believe it was about this."

"Spirits above," Anna gasped as her hands shot to her mouth. She took a step closer to examine the pale blue ice block that laid on the mattress. "Did you do this?"

Elsa immediately covered the prosthesis under the warm cloth and shook her head. "No, he had it when I first discovered he could use magic too." A long sigh escaped from her chest.

"He looks like he's been through a lot. I wonder if he has stories to tell," Anna said as she gently rubbed her hands on her arms, her eyes turning back to their usual size.

_There she goes again, telling whatever's on her mind._

"I guess we could ask him when he wakes up," Kristoff reasoned.

 _I don't think he'd agree to that…_ Elsa answered internally as she recalled their quick trek amidst the woods.

Arendelle's ice harvester let out a deep chuckle, ruffling his own hair with his hand. "This guy basically punched his way into our lives four days ago, and here we are standing at his bed like he's our sick cousin."

Anna shrugged. "To be fair, we did drag him into a mess he had nothing to do with in the first place. Twice. And twice he stood by us with a smile. I say he earned it."

Elsa kept her eyes locked on Garret's face, slightly dazed by how different it looked than its awake counterpart. It reminded her of the aspect it took whenever he laughed. "He seems peaceful," she softly stated.

"He does," Anna's voice answered. She paused for a few moments, the crackle of the lamp and Garret's slow and steady breathing the only sounds breaking the night's complete silence. "It was a bit mean."

Elsa's tiredness didn't refrain her from feeling puzzled at that statement. "When I said he looked peaceful?" she asked as she eyed her sister with a lifted eyebrow.

"Earlier. It was mean of me to yell. I shouldn't have." Anna's smile was not her usual. This one was forced, almost broody, reminding Elsa of what she had had to display herself before the day of her coronation.

She lightly chuckled as she brought her eyes back to the sleeping soldier before her. "It's okay, I can handle a bit of tough love from time to time."

It was Anna's turn to snicker. "You should go to sleep. Pardon my honesty, but you look absolutely terrible."

Elsa clicked her tongue at her sister's playful jab, rolling her eyes as she responded. "Speaking of tough love…"

"Well, I do love you, don't I? Just promise you won't stay up too late like you do all the time." She lifted her finger as if expecting her sister to disagree with her – which wasn't entirely untrue. "Don't try to argue. That's a guilty look if I ever saw one."

"Okay. I promise," Elsa concluded with a smile. She accepted Anna's offered hug, slowly rubbing her back with her hands as they embraced, her cape ruffling smoothly with every stroke.

"Good night, Elsa. And I know I didn't do my best to show it, but I'm thankful," Anna confided.

"I know, Anna."

"Doesn't hurt to be sure." She planted a kiss on Elsa's forehead and stepped away, taking Kristoff's hand into her own. The couple waved on their way out. "Good night."

The door closed with a snap. Elsa was now alone in the room.

She turned her gaze to the sky through the window. The full moon's brilliance reverberated in her navy-blue eyes like a cobalt halo that insolently sparkled on the thick glass. Stars flickering above, Elsa noticed the surprising absence of clouds—there would usually be a lot more of them, wrapped and twisted around each other like playing children. A younger Elsa had always imagined they'd have light-hearted banter along for their world-traversing rides, but for the night, the sky was as clear as the water under it. She closed her eyelids for a minute, appreciating the silence and the brisk air that played and rolled with the thin drapes around the bed, swinging in a long and sassy motion like a dancer's veil.

Releasing yet another sigh, she neared the comfortable mattress quietly, careful not to wake her guest by accidentally clapping a loud heel on the old but sturdy parquet floor.

_His memories. They're woven into the fabric of his ice. If an arrow can give access to so much, his leg will probably show a lot more, won't it?_

The gateway to all of his remembrance lied in front of her, concealed under a blanket a simple tug would remove. Elsa's curiosity was gradually taking the control of her hand away from her.

_He hates himself…_

She slowly grazed the red and golden cloth with the tips of her fingers, feeling the little imperfections the prosthesis was creating from under the fabric, exploring the valleys and hills of what she understood was a manifestation of Garret's most vivid past. The light barrier was enough to cut any contact, however; she'd have to touch the ice directly.

_I don't really know him. And he's already killed… I need to see them._

The conflicting assessments twirled in Elsa's head like a turbulent tornado. Lightly raising the blanket's corner with shaking hands, she eyed the slumbering man's face with caution, ready to yank them back at the faintest movement.

However, the quick peep she gave him made her stop immediately. Judging from the mild snoring and the long rises and falls of his chest, he was still completely and utterly asleep. Despite that, a smile had appeared on his face, small yet as radiant as the one he had displayed earlier in the afternoon. His head was slightly tilted to the side, just like how Anna did when she slept. Elsa couldn't repress her own mouth corners from slightly lifting up as a sensation of singular heat crept up her chest. While not completely hitherto unprecedented for the young woman, the feeling wasn't unpleasant.

 _I at least owe it to him to do this with his consent,_ she told herself as she slowly backed her hands from the sheets. _Anna was right, we dragged him into this nonsense without even asking and he still helped._

At her own astonishment, her traits softened, and her shoulders relaxed—when had she become so tense?

Elsa gingerly put the blanket back into place and brought her hands together behind her. She didn't know whether she trusted him yet—Gran Pabbie's words still rung in the back of her mind and her trust was hard to gain to begin with; she knew that better than anyone else. But while this man had barged into her life and her kingdom like a boulder in the middle of a snowstorm, he had thus far only shown support and good-will, and had suffered the most terrible wound she had ever seen to save her sister—that made him at least worthy of the benefit of the doubt.

"He hates himself," she repeated. Now that she had time to calmly assess his company during the last days–all the small sighs, the tired looks, and the self-deprecation–the fact made a surprising amount of sense.

_He isn't home. I can't believe it has nothing to do with that._

A yawn suddenly forced her jaw wide open—she covered her mouth in reflex.

 _I'm falling asleep on my spot,_ Elsa told herself.

She quietly extinguished the lamp at Garret's right and with a final smile neared the chamber's exit and stepped outside the room, suppressing another yawn. She threw a quick glance to her hands; no steam to be seen this time.

"Rest well," were her last words before she closed the heavy door behind her.

* * *

When Elsa awoke, the pain told her that she was still down from the steaming ruin of her castle. Why? Why would anyone destroy it? Why would anyone target her? But the pain seemed too weak for that. She moaned softly.

_He's injured…_

No. She had already awoken in her snow. She had already taken the ice blade out. She had already gone to see the trolls. She was already back in Arendelle. It had been quite a while after the attack.

She coughed lightly and opened her eyes. Reddish sunlight was showering over the room, shining through her window. Gradually adjusting to it, she got up from her ample and braided mattress on one arm, using the other to massage her temples.

_What hour is it?_

She wiped the crumbs from her eyes and crawled out of the giant bed to stand on her feet, lifting her groggy gaze to the pendulum that swung tirelessly in the room since decades before she was born. Her shocked gasp was perfectly synchronized with the third and final bell ring.

_It's already this late? I slept well into the afternoon!_

She hurriedly cleaned herself and stepped out of her room. A small company of guards was standing behind it, saluting as soon as they noticed her presence. Elsa greeted them back and slowly walked, taking the time to check on her sister. She carefully opened the door half a corridor away from hers and let a single eye poke out from the frame, throwing a discreet peep inside. However, Elsa immediately retreated back with reddening cheeks when she caught the sight of two pairs of naked legs intertwined. She closed the door a bit too loudly in an embarrassed rush.

 _Why didn't they lock it?_ she mentally scolded. Elsa took a second to shake what she had just seen off her mind and lightly tapped her jowls to drain them of their faint rose color. Releasing a sigh, she headed towards the library with her new personal troop on her tail, still upset that she'd have to work twice as hard to compensate for her oversleeping. The attempt on her life was still vividly occupying a part of her mind, but the kingdom would still have to run whether she felt like it or not. As she pushed the doors to her own private temple, Kai's unmistakable reverend tone emerged from the other end of the corridor.

"Your Majesty," he greeted from afar, walking towards her as soon as he caught sight of her. "You're awake. I hope you've had a good day's sleep," he said with a mischievous smile. Elsa couldn't tell whether he was teasing her or just stating the plain courtesies his position inferred –he had become a master at driving her crazy with his quick wits and friendly yet sarcastic innuendos.

Elsa tried to apply her own sister's quote: _When in doubt, play dumb._

"I'm sorry–I wasn't–I had–I woke up early, and then–the bed was huge–"

She wasn't good at playing dumb.

Kai lightly laughed. Elsa sighed, a small pout forming on her face. "I was merely jesting, my queen. I certainly hope you've had enough rest. Had it been up to me, you wouldn't have been allowed out of your bed all day."

"But, today I had to–"

"Arrange for the transfer of property between the Rögarrs and the Trogsons by initiating the administrative work. Which I think you'll be happy to hear I completely filled out myself. Only your sigil is missing."

"And what about–"

"The Marquis of Pherae sends you his most esteemed salutations. He's taken his vessel back to his country by now and he'll patiently wait until our situation has resolved."

"But the–?"

"Sir Armand's letter was sent. His Minister assured he hopes he can be of any help concerning our predicament. His best men are at the ready should you demand their presence."

Elsa sighed again at Kai's proud expression. "You really did take care of everything I had to do…"

"That would be my primary occupation. Although most of those were actually carried out by your advisors," he answered with a sincere smile. "I do try to make your life as easy as it can be." He slightly lowered his head, a light frown appearing on his face. "You went through events that would have crushed most people's morale, Your Majesty. I can only hope you would take today as a form of rest," he softly added. Elsa's heart fluttered at his worried but caring tone.

Kai had been the closest she and Anna had ever had to an uncle figure. He had always been sweet and protective with the two sisters, yet a prime example of devotion to his position as main overseer.

"Is that an order?" she teased in turn, slowly lifting an eyebrow.

"I would never dare to imply it was."

 _He has a point,_ Elsa thought as they shared a quick laugh.

"Thank you, Kai. I think… I think I'm going to listen to your advice."

"And you honor me with those words, my queen," he said with another smile, a lot less roguish this time. "One last matter. It seems our guest— _Carrot,_ I believe he said his name was _—_ is awake. I took the liberty of having a meal delivered to him."

Elsa lightly giggled. _I can go say hello to this Carrot._

"I would be lost without you," she cheerfully commented.

"Wouldn't the world?" Kai concluded with a chuckle as he bowed low.

* * *

Elsa took the last step from the staircase that led to the ground floor, her heel echoing within the walls with a succinct click. The palace was as empty as usual in the middle of an unceremonious day.

She neared the chamber Garret had been transported to, slowly pushing the door open. The vast room was well-lit this time, the decorative fractals on the walls finally shining like they always have. She hadn't noticed it the first time she'd been inside, but just like in her own room, a portrait of her parents hung on the wall opposite from her, regal and formal as all their portraits were. To her surprise, Olaf and Sven had taken a seat right under it, the former over the latter, facing the bed in which Garret was sitting with his torso enveloped in tight white gauze, only exposing his upper chest and his shoulders. Feeling the same odd warmth as the day before spread on her cheeks, Elsa quickly averted her eyes, letting him cover himself.

"Hi, Elsa!" Olaf chirped, Sven's bellow joining his greeting soon after.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty," Garret bowed in the best manner he could, struggling to lean over his bandages. "It's good to see you rested and well."

"As it is you, Garret," she responded. The soldier lifted his eyebrows. "Mostly," she apologetically corrected, quickly eyeing the approximate location of his injury. "How are you feeling?"

"Well, I was having a conversation with a sentient snowman standing on a reindeer—that I'm sure can understand me—while lying in bed because an ancient talking rock healed the injury I gave myself when I fell from a destructed ice castle," he deadpanned with a shrug. "All in all, pretty good," he concluded with a clearly forced grin.

Elsa couldn't help but notice the bitterness behind it, even though she responded to his smile with one of her own.

Garret didn't seem to pay much attention to the intense scrutiny he was undergoing, though. "And I really started to like these guys, too." He turned his head to the side. "Hey, Olaf! Say something funny."

"Something funny!" the snowman enthusiastically exclaimed.

Garret blinked a few times. "I gave him the stick on that one. Also," He resumed speaking to Elsa. "I had this lovely warm meal on the side of my bed when I woke up and it was really good. So, that helps too. Was it you, Olaf?"

The snowman snorted. "No, I'm not a warm meal." He turned his head to the woman who had created him with a sympathetic—and just a bit patronizing—expression. "He wasn't the brightest of the bunch, was he?"

Garret lightly laughed. "Yup, I deserved that one too. Anyway, majesty, do we have anything on the absolute butth—the bad guys who attacked yesterday?"

Elsa noted the retracted swear word with a quick raise of her eyebrows—he had had the decency to refrain himself from fully saying it, at least.

_And of course he'd ask._

"We're still scrambling to find anything, really. I was told we managed to catch a glimpse of their crest. The Royal Guard is examining it and has forbidden us from leaving the castle."

Garret nodded in approval. "Good idea. Your castle is pretty much impenetrable via conventional means. As long as you're dealing with small numbers, it's pretty much the ideal fortress." His face fell a bit as he finished.

_Again with the tired look._

Olaf silently observed them exchange words that seemed to sound like blabbering twaddle to his non-existent ears. Shrugging to himself like he didn't want to give up on them, he still walked out of the room, Sven following in his trail.

Elsa waited until the heavy sound of a locked bolt sprang from behind her. "That is very true, I'm trusting my advisors on that. Although I still cannot wrap my head around the duke employing such drastic means. I knew he didn't hold me in his heart, but this seems a little… over the top, even for him."

"Your Majesty, he has accused you of sorcery and was demoted from his position of power because he was there last year. I've seen people do way worse for way less." Garret heavily exhaled, lightly massaging his left side. "I wouldn't underestimate him. Death is not a lesson you want to learn the hard way. But I could take a look at that symbol if you want, see if I can recognize something? Though I can't promise anything. I'm far from being an expert about them but patterns are usually very common among mercenary groups that are large enough to have crests."

Elsa smiled gratefully. "That is kind of you."

A thought popped in her mind. _I have to talk to him about his memories._

As soon as she opened her mouth to speak again, Einar's voice called her from outside the room.

"Milady!"

She excused herself with a slight bob of her head and stepped out, closing the door again.

"Yes, Captain. What is it?"

Einar's eyes were wide: not quite panicked, but his pupils were dilated–he was excited. "I think we have an acceptable final draft for that symbol. Crossing it with different sources gathered by Mrs. Loeanken allowed us to reach this first real result."

_So, our historian was involved after all..._

Einar pulled out a drawn golden emblem that represented ten rings billowed around a hand, with a birthmark clearly visible on the limb. Studying it closely, Elsa took in every single detail. At the bottom, a sentence brought her eyes to the largest radius they could reach. Her heart beating fast, Elsa gasped and slammed the door behind her open. Garret seemed slightly startled at her sudden reappearance. Einar followed his queen with a curious frown as she hurriedly came to Garret's bedside.

"Garret, the phrase you pronounced at the end of the oath you made. Was it your knighthood order's motto?" He nodded at that. "Can you please tell me what it means?"

Taking a few blinks to get his bearings, the man answered matter-of-factly. "Auspicium Melioris Aevi? They said it basically means 'Token of hope for a better age' or something like that. But I recall it's not exclusive to the Order of the Bath. It's actually pretty common. Some big schools in the colonies, literature societies, even sports clubs–"

"Did you ever see this?" she asked directly, lightly putting the emblem in front of his nose.

Garret's face followed the exact same pattern Elsa's did a few seconds before. He delicately took the paper from her hands and Elsa noticed a certain shaking in both his arms and his fingers as he thoroughly examined it. And there it was, under the crest, traced in golden letters.

_Auspicium Melioris Aevi._

"I did, actually. Though never with this motto attached to it." He took a long breath. "This is the symbol for Hopkin's Blessed."

"Who are they? How do you know them?" Einar demanded with a vigorous tone, his expression hard like steel.

Garret met Elsa's blue with his own green, his gaze fearful. However, this fear wasn't the same as the day before this one seemed visceral, poignant, bitter. A fear that could hold dreams back. He shook his head a bit, letting her understand that he had bad news to deliver. "They are witch hunters. In the sense that they claim to be the inheritors of the witch purges that were happening up until a century ago. And I know them because they have already hunted me down before."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N: I hope you enjoyed this one.
> 
> As I said, reviews are welcome should you have anything you want to share with me. I now have a couple of Betas on board with me and I think their input is going to considerably enhance the story for what comes next. Kudos to you, Grand Paladin-go check out their story, it's called Andraste's Chevalier-and Loderell!
> 
> Another shout out goes to my friend Hydroxide; The White Hun is an absolutely incredible story-in the same vein as this one, it explores the darker side of the Frozen universe. Go give it a try, I'm sure you'll like it!
> 
> On an unrelated note, I think I'm going to start teasing chapters with music that represents their general tone. If you want to put yourself in the mood for the next chapter, check out Thomas Bergersen's Little Star on YouTube-which I also think can be considered the main theme for the entire fic.
> 
> Otherwise, that's it. See you next time.
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	9. Crystal

The week had been one of the calmest Anna had ever lived. _Ironic_ , she thought, considering Elsa was currently the target of a murderous and vengeful duke. Following Garret's identification of the crest, her sister had been mostly silent, spending all her time fulfilling royal duties with religious devotion. Kristoff and herself knew there had been something wrong, but the specifics had remained secret for a bit. They were only made aware of the news that evening when Einar had taken a few minutes to summarize what they had learned while getting out of one of Jürden's meetings.

"They only want Her Majesty. He says they pride themselves in only taking their shots at those they consider witches."

"How does it make sense that they tried to kill literally everyone a week ago, then?" Anna asked with lifted eyebrows. While not a military genius, she could very much understand when someone wanted her dead.

Einar shrugged, his traits tempered like iron. "That was my first question too, Your Highness. He looked as puzzled as we were. And that was the end of what he divulged, though I'm still sure he's withholding some information."

Kristoff was rubbing Sven's fur with ample and thorough movements, the reindeer's strangely expressive features as anxious as the couple next to him.

"I mean, what would he win from not telling everything? He's been straight with us until now."

"Just a feeling, sir. This man's appearance timed too well with this new threat, and he sniffed around a bit too much for my liking." Einar's attention was focused on the door at the other end of the hall behind which Garret was slowly getting back on his feet after being bedridden for seven full days. "I would be cautious about what to tell him." He brought his gaze back to his princess and dropped his voice lower before continuing. "I do not wish for you to have anything similar to last year's situation repeated."

Hearing his sympathetic tone—in his own way—made her understand his remark was well-intentioned, but Anna still sensed a bit of color drain from her face at the insinuation. Kristoff's reaction, on the other hand, was a lot less subtle.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, dropping his tight fists to his sides as a frown appeared on his face. The princess delicately put a calming hand on his shoulder with a small smile.

_He's not wrong._

She slightly hung her head, her eyes not leaving Kristoff's. "That is a fair warning, Einar. Thank you." The captain bowed respectfully. "Say hello to Najöra for me," Anna concluded. Einar nodded with a tight pursing of his lips and walked down to the barracks, his hands clasped behind his back.

"He shouldn't have said that," Kristoff commented with a raise of his shoulders as soon as he was out of earshot, his brows still furrowed in a surprisingly symmetrical V shape.

"It was still true." Anna had had a lot of time to reflect on what had happened after her sister's failed coronation. She knew she hadn't done anything wrong—the entire kingdom ensured that particular bit was hammered into her mind early enough—but that didn't stop from feeling a touch of guilt.

_Could have used a little common sense though._

She heavily sighed and lightly kissed the back of Kristoff's hand with a thankful smile. "But that was sweet of you."

"I'm the only one that gets to mention or make fun of what happened last year," Kristoff huffed in a normal voice, his clear annoyance diminishing the instant he locked his gaze on her face. The blush on his cheeks almost made Anna giggle.

"And Elsa," she added instead while holding her index finger up in the air.

"And Elsa. But she never does anyway."

Anna regained her enthusiasm in a flash. "And you know why? That's because she's actually a sweet well-mannered girl who cares about me."

"I'm well-mannered too."

"You eat carrots your reindeer just half-chewed."

"Carrots are delicious!" he exclaimed with a bewildered face. He briskly turned his back to her, lifting his face to the ceiling and dramatically running a hand through his hair. "I don't think I can stay with someone who can't appreciate them."

"I like carrots. I'll just eat the ones Sven didn't almost swallow." She tilted her body to the side, bringing her eyes to the aforementioned reindeer. "No offense."

Sven neighed in acknowledgment.

"Choosy," Kristoff scoffed. " _Aristocrats_."

Anna feigned a surprised look. "Where did you hear that word? The brainpower surge could be fatal! You sure you don't want to lie down?"

Kristoff lifted an eyebrow. "I know tons of words. Like furnace, tirade, mendicant…" He stopped when his hair fell over his eyes as Anna's hand gently patted his head.

"I know. I'm proud of you." They shared a laugh at that, not leaving each other's eyes. Anna heaved a quick breath, nervously playing with a single strand of her hair. "Witch-hunters huh?"

Kristoff slowly rubbed her shoulders and spoke in what Anna understood was his best attempt at a reassuring voice. "They're not gonna get her. We're talking about Elsa. She basically beat two trained guys with crossbows on her own."

_I'm more worried about what she's thinking._

Anna knew firsthand that Elsa was very prone to blaming herself for things like these. She'd have to go have a talk with her, even though she had had the very distinct feeling that her sister had slightly avoided her during the last week. For the moment, the queen was holed up in the conference hall with Kai, Jürden and all the other advisors for an urgent special session. This had been the first time she'd summoned them for anything other than routine meetings during her reign.

_What could I even say?_

She didn't want Elsa to revert to her shut-in self. She wanted to keep her sister. She wanted to see her as happy as she had been during the last year. She wanted her to go out, meet the people of her kingdom, get tongue-tied as she usually did, talk it off, have fun, find love and experience all the marvels of life that Anna had experienced herself. She wanted her to _live._

"Wanna talk to him first?"

As if reading her thoughts, Kristoff's voice snapped her out of her own mind. He gave a nod toward Garret's chamber. Anna and Kristoff had visited him quite often during the last few days. While always she had found the young man honestly pleasant and quite entertaining, a part of Anna knew that he wasn't in the best state of mind either.

 _They went after him before. Is it possible they followed him here?_ she quickly wondered. _No, he isn't a target,_ she immediately answered her own question with a shaking of her head under Kristoff's amused stare—he had become accustomed to Anna talking to herself like she'd do to anyone else. _The four idiots didn't know anything about him._

"Yeah. Let's go," she responded with another smile, dragging Kristoff by his hands.

* * *

Garret had gone through a rough week. He had been assured his injury would heal, but it still took him days to stand up without tipping to his right side. It had only been half a day since he could finally walk almost normally, but the lower part of his back still stung whenever he took a step. He stood to the window, slightly hopping on his uninjured leg. Throwing a glance outside, he observed the sun's last rays disappear behind the water with a fiery shine on the surprisingly smooth sea, giving way to the colder but no less intensive sparkle of the moonlight that broke through the thick clouds over Arendelle like a divine crown.

_God-freaking-dammit._

Quickly eyeing the door, he waved to the two guards standing not far from it with a fake cocky grin. Last week, the captain had insisted they stayed inside his room to keep a closer eye on him. Tilting his head with a quick shrug when they didn't respond, Garret released a long sigh.

_I don't think he has enough people for this. He knows a full-on assault won't work._

He hadn't really considered the idea that he could have to run into that fanatic ever again. Garret felt the taste of blood rise in his esophagus. He clenched his fists and shook his head to extricate himself from his own memories, letting his thoughts go to the queen instead.

_And she's had to deal with that thing just a year ago. Poor woman._

Elsa had occupied quite a significant part of his mind whenever he was alone in the room, fiddling his fingers and learning where all the cracks on the walls were. She was an intriguing yet gracious being. The way she had manipulated ice to become an enormous radiating castle was something he was sure would stick to his mind for a while, but her quick wits and overall calmness he had found to be almost reassuring. And having an idea of what she'd been through only reinforced the sheer admiration for her which he was slowly discovering deep within himself.

But while Anna and Kristoff, as well as Olaf and Sven, had come a few times to speak to him, Elsa had not shown herself nearly as much. From what he understood, she was still debating what to do with her advisors. He had seen her twice in the entire week, once when she had come to ask him about some details along with Jürden, Kai and Einar, and a second time when she had accompanied the nurses for his physical.

Bringing his eyes to his left leg with a disgusted grunt, Garret sighed again. Where was his coat? He was starting to miss it.

A soft knock echoed in the room, Anna's voice emerging from behind the door. "Garret? It's Anna and Kristoff. Can we come in?"

The soldier slightly smiled. "This is your castle, you can go wherever you want."

The door leaf half opened, letting the pouting face of his host peek from the embrasure. "I'm polite."

Garret heartily laughed. "That you are, Your Highness."

Anna rolled her eyes with a huff as she stepped inside. "Told you to call me Anna. 'Highness' feels weird. Only the guards call me that. Hi guys, by the way." This time the two guards eagerly returned the wave they received.

_Okay, now that's just mean._

Putting aside his mild irritation, Garret focused on the royal couple that had just entered. "What can I do for you, _Anna?_ " He stressed her name with a playful smile. She nodded in approval.

Kristoff answered in her stead. "Just wanted to talk a bit, see how you were doing."

Garret tried not to let his surprise show on his face. "You were worried?"

"Well, yeah," Anna responded with a nervous chuckle. "They told us these witch-hunters were after _you_ at some point." She brought her hands together, playing with her fingers as if she wasn't sure of what she was saying. "We wanted to see if you were okay?"

Garret took a few seconds to process the question. He had always been good at not showing his emotions, and this was one of those times where he was happy for that fact. "I'm alright."

Anna lifted an eyebrow, doubt plastered all over her freckles. "Did that ever convince anyone? 'Cause you're gonna have to do a lot better."

"I assure you. I'm fine."

She shot that same eyebrow even further up. Maybe he wasn't that good after all. "Gustav, Alfonse, can you please leave us alone for a moment?" she asked while turning around to face the two guards.

"Ma'am? Captain Einar said—"

"I know. Please? It'll be just a minute." Kristoff opened the door with a large smile, inciting the two to leave. As soon as they—reluctantly—stepped outside, Anna whirled her head back. "So?"

"I think I'm doi—Are you a detective? Or a foxhound?" Garret asked with a shake of his head. "How many fingers can you see?" he continued as he lifted three of them behind his back, where she couldn't see them. Could she?

Anna lightly laughed but didn't allow the digression to distract her off course. “I've got a power of my own, never told you? I grew up with very stoic friends. Now, Garret. I can't believe you don't have anything you want to talk about."

The soldier scratched his chin with a pensive expression.

_Would it be so bad?_

"I do, actually. But this is not the time."

_It bloody well would._

There came that eyebrow again. "What do you mean, this is not the time? When will it be the time?"

Garret felt his own features drop and his eyes glaze ever so slightly. "It isn't the time because what I would say would not help us today. There'll be more than enough when we have this mess sorted out, innit?" He stood as firmly as he could, letting Anna scan his face for any little twitch, any sign that he wasn't steadfast in his conviction. "I reckon I'm hardly the priority, right now. Did you talk to your sister?"

Anna seemed to consider inquiring further upon the first part of his answer but decided against it in the end. "No, I didn't. She's been… kinda busy for the last few days."

"This must be weighing on her mind," Garret murmured in response with a sympathetic wince.

Anna's upbeat demeanor quickly changed to a more crestfallen expression. Her eyes lowered slightly, mirroring the perceptible fading of her smile. She was slowly bringing her closed knuckles together repeatedly while biting her lower lip.

"We're a bit afraid that's what's happening," Kristoff answered as he gently put his arm around the sprightly princess. He made a small gesture with his head, indicating the young red-headed woman at his side. Garret nodded in understanding.

_A year is not that long a time, all things considered._

"Anna," he called with a small smile, taking a quick step to come a bit closer to her, her expression visibly distressed. "I know this isn't really my business. But if I may, in the short while I've known you, I can safely say you're one of the closest pairs of siblings I've ever met." Anna slightly lifted her eyes—their corners were starting to shine. "Going through something like this is hard enough as it is, she doesn't have to do it alone. Her Majesty is lucky enough that she has you both, the reindeer—as strange as that sounds—Olaf… Heck, from what I saw the day of the celebration, the entire kingdom adores her! Just be there for her, I think you already know how valuable that can be. And I'm sure Kristoff agrees with me."

"I do," Kristoff confirmed, giving him an appreciative nod. "We both know it means a lot to her that you stand at her side."

Anna's eyes flew between the two men. "What if she doesn't want us to?"

"She does." Garret could almost _hear_ the hopeful flutter of Anna's heart. "It doesn't mean that she sees she does."

"What do I say, then?"

"You don't have to say anything," Kristoff responded. "You didn't when she needed to rest because she had caught a cold. You didn't when you took the h—You know. _Hans._ You've always been there. Just do it again," he finished with a tender grin and a gaze Garret guessed could only be that of a man in love.

The soldier simply lifted his hands toward the taller man with a quick nod. "There you go. Couldn't have said it better myself."

Anna quickly sniffed even though her eyes were dry. She brought a hand to gently cup Kristoff's cheek, and muttered a feeble "Thanks". She then stepped forward, standing in front of Garret with a confident and renewed enthusiasm. "Thank you, too."

"My pleasure."

Anna's brows furrowed a tiny bit, indicating that she was carefully thinking over her next words. "Garret… I know you said this wasn't really your business. But—" She took a long breath that made Garret question how lungs so large could fit into so tiny a body. "But as you've probably already noticed, Arendelle isn't really a gigantic super force. I think we could really use your help."

And she stood there, apparently awaiting his reply. Garret was a bit taken aback at first.

_That's new. Use my help?_

"I'm not going to be that useful if I can hardly walk," he deadpanned while lifting his left leg.

Anna's gaze lingered upon it for a few moments. "We need all the help we can get. I-I know this is a lot to ask… And that we've done nothing but bring trouble to you… But Elsa, she'll—I know her, she always wants to take everything on herself —And this is really—I mean, I'm really sorry—"

"Anna." She stopped her disarticulated parole. "I promise to do what I can," Garret said with finality, a genuine smile making its way to his lips.

"Really?" Anna asked, her eyes wide as if she didn't believe what he had just said.

"What, you want me to say no?" Garret asked with a dumbfounded expression.

"No, no, no!" she hurriedly spurted. "You already said yes!"

 _Ah, confidence. Know when to show it, but never overestimate it. She'd make one hell of a leader,_ Garret thought as he suppressed a chuckle.

"You're the first people to treat me with such kindness in a _very_ long time. The least I can do is help. And should you need it, I can spare an arrow or two," he said with a wink.

In the last few years, he had grown used to be treated with mild fear and indifference at best, outright disgust at worst. It felt refreshing to finally have to deal with people who saw him as the weird sounding rando who happened to know how to fire frozen arrows he was.

The princess' shoulders sunk as she released a jerky breath and mirrored his smile. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that." She then gave his arm a quick thankful rub, her warm hand burning against his skin. "You're a good man, Garret." His heart clenched a little, but he still maintained his beam.

"Attention!" a voice loudly called from the exterior. Garret instinctively stood upright and barely held onto his salute.

"At ease," another voice uttered. For the second time that evening, a knock on the heavy wooden planks was heard throughout the room. Before the trio inside could say anything, the door opened and Jürden walked in. The old counselor was adorning a more formal military suit this time.

"Good heavens, I apologize for interrupting, highness," he said when he noticed Anna and Kristoff's quizzical stares. He stood tall, his hands behind his back. "Her Excellency requests Sir Garret's presence." Said Garret pointed towards himself. "Yes. You, son," Jürden repeated, leaning away from the door to grant passage outside. "Let's go."

_What does she want?_

The soldier threw puzzled looks at Anna and Kristoff, only receiving inconclusive shrugs in response. He finally nodded, stepping out of the room behind the decorated old man as the royal couple waved goodbye.

They passed a corridor, then a second. As they strode through the adjacent hall, Garret realized his light limp impeded his ability to match his guide's speed. Jürden quickly broke the silence that had settled between them.

"So. Where did you serve?"

"Huh?" was Garret's answer to the back before him.

"It is my understanding that you are former military. Where did you serve?" Jürden repeated as he turned his head around with a sympathetic smile.

"Umm… Great Britain. The British Armed Forces."

To Garret's surprise, Jürden released a quick laugh. "I was able to put that together, seeing as you're British and a soldier. I meant where, as in which regiment?"

"Oh," Garret understood his mistake. "I was in a specialized strike team linked to the 45th Foot line infantry regiment."

"Strike team, huh?" Jürden's tone was noble, but still held a semblance of cunning that didn't go past Garret's ears. His whole demeanor reminded him a lot of his father. "Disruption or deletion?"

"Disruption, sir."

"Ah. Clever choice," Jürden complimented with a tilt of his head. "You can climb ranks quickly with that, and you usually don't see a lot of ugly combat. But you still must have been pretty good to get into it in the first place. Or call in a few favors with the brass."

_My old man had contacts._

"I was in the right place at the right time."

He hoped his half-answer wouldn't entice a deeper questioning.

Jürden nodded appreciatively. "The result's the same either way, yes?"

Suppressing an overwhelming urge to deeply sigh, Garret coughed in his hand instead. His question came out almost unwillingly.

"Did you serve too?"

"I did, under Her Majesty's grandfather and father. I was the equivalent to a lieutenant-general for a few years before I stepped out. I am now merely an advisor."

Something odd occurred to Garret. "Wait. Lieutenant-General? Arendelle has a military? I thought there was only the Guard to handle security matters."

"We had one up until around thirty years ago," Jürden responded. "Our numbers became too small to justify sustaining an armed force. The Guard was kept as a peacekeeping order from then on. About that…" An idea seemed to pop in his head. "I know Captain Einar has not been the most welcoming…"

 _You don't say,_ Garret thought as he recalled the almost frantic interrogation he had suffered a week before.

"… but I hope you understand he holds the kingdom's safety in his heart. He has nothing against you, it is his job to be suspicious."

"I understand. A man's got to do what a man's got to do. And speaking of being suspicious, you don't look like you are enough, if you want my honest opinion," Garret said with a shrug.

Jürden laughed again. "You don't mince words, son. I like that." He readjusted his numerous insignias on his shoulder’s pauldron before resuming. "I was at first. The timing and your seemingly unyielding urge to explore our barracks didn't help. But you took a blade to the back for our queen, and we are in a strange position of counter-siege. I say if you were somehow linked to those witch-hunters, we wouldn't have been able to stop you at this point."

"I-I guess that makes sense."

"But that's just me… I don't know if you've seen the looks on the maids or the guards inside the castle. They still haven't gotten past what happened last year."

"I… got vague echoes of that. It also makes sense."

"You'll get used to it as fast as they'll get used to you. I wouldn't worry too much. Anyway, we're here," Jürden simply stated as they reached an immense ornate door with a golden handle he effortlessly pushed open. When he stepped inside, Garret was amazed at the sheer scale of the room he found himself in.

The engravings intertwined in a harmonious dance above the crystal chandelier. The gleam of the corners reminded him of the ice that filled every possible interstice, as glimmering as the moon outside. The table in the center of the room seemed to stretch endlessly, the strips of fine polished wood carved to perfection, reflecting the blue light of the night like a hundred ebony mirrors. A small fire crackled within a fireplace that seemed to be covered with red satin, its glowing aura contrasting with the cold glint of absolutely everything else. Quickly registering its location, Garret made a mental note to stay away from it. In the back of the room, below a window as tall as a house, stood Elsa, her dress blending in the background of a calm and transparent water behind the glass that glittered softly under the scattered clouds of Arendelle's night sky. She turned around as soon as the noise of a closing door reached her ears.

"Thank you, Sir Jürden. Good evening, Garret."

Even his trained ear had trouble making out her words from a distance.

"You called for me, majesty?" Garret asked with a bow once he got close enough to not have to shout. He had always felt ridiculous when trying to imitate the formal curtsies he had seen his father accomplish at times. He was sure he looked as gracious as an ostrich running under water.

The counselor left the room quietly after a respectful nod, leaving Garret to stare at the circles of fire that the warm light drew in Elsa's navy-blue eyes. He stopped for a second, noticing her tense shoulders and crossed arms.

_Did she always look this… tired?_

"Yes. I just finished an extraordinary session with my advisors, and we've reached the global consensus that we will give this matter our undivided attention. All other pans of my duties will be suspended for the time being."

_Oh, because not doing exactly that was an option in the first place?_

Garret kept his ill-placed sarcasm to himself. "I can only support your decision. These guys are far from amateurs."

"Yes, and your words definitely heavily weighted in the balance. You said this Roger is an adept fighter?"

"Well, he is, but that's not really the problem. The duke is not as dangerous, because from what Anna told me, he's aggressive, egoistical, cruel, a manipulator and a moron. Roger, on the other hand, is aggressive, egoistical, cruel, a manipulator and an intelligent man. He's a competent war strategist, and he uses his knowledge of tactics for precise strikes."

Elsa took a few seconds to think, her unwavering yet slightly hollow gaze not leaving his eyes. "Is that so? Then why pick up this 'trade'? Why hunt down people?"

"He's a man of deep conviction. He always thought the witch purges had been left incomplete, so he took it upon himself to finish his idol's job, and he took the horrors of the middle-ages as an inspiration. Hopkins was one of the most famous witch-hunters during their golden age, hence the name of his group."

"Yes, I've… read about him. About some of the things that he inflicted on those poor souls." Her stare had now shifted to a more sympathetic glance. "They burned them, didn't they?" She was intensively scanning his face as she spoke.

Pushing back the nauseating smell and the cries of agony into the abyss of his consciousness, Garret flinched a tiny bit. "Yes… Yes, they still do."

A heavy silence lingered after that, not unlike the one that had settled a week before in front of the little pond.

"I'm sorry," Elsa muttered after a while. Garret answered with a short laugh.

_That rings a bell._

"What are you apologizing for?"

_That too._

"This is in part why I've summoned you. We brought you into this without even—"

Elsa stopped talking when she saw that his smile had grown even broader than before.

_Sisters they are._

"All right, Your Majesty, I already did this with Anna," he said. "You told me this yourself— don't apologize for being who you are. You have nothing to be sorry about. We'll sort this thing out. We know that he will only target _you_. That is an enormous advantage." He pointed toward the door. "And I must stress that you're not going to deal with this alone. I wouldn't be surprised if Anna was waiting outside the door, ready to jump at whoever comes out first. Calling it now, I'd rather have that person be you."

Elsa seemed hesitant for a moment. She eventually stood a little taller, uncrossing her arms and folding her hands in front of her. Her face looked just a tiny bit brighter.

"Right. Sir Jürden suggested we wait for now, while the Guard secures the area around us. He said he'd station ships around the kingdom and create different choke points should they decide to make a move."

 _This guy knows what he's doing,_ Garret thought as he recalled the quick conversation he had exchanged with the old ex-officer. Arendelle was in good hands.

"Sound advice. We have a fortress and we're going to use it."

"We?"

"Oh, yeah, Anna made me promise to help. Well, she didn't _make_ me, but I promised to help as much as I could. Which, I guess, was your next point?"

"It was, actually." Elsa heavily sighed and apparently relaxed a tiny bit. She let her eyes run along the ceiling, stopping here and there while a small smile grew on her face. "I spent most of my life inside this castle, loathing it for shutting me in. It never once occurred to me that it could protect me from something out there."

Garret let his shoulders slump down. "You were kept inside…" He hadn't known that.

Elsa simply nodded, nostalgia clear on her face. "I was. My father insisted on it. And I always thought it was to protect the outside world. In the end, I'm not sure if it wasn't to protect me instead. I guess it doesn't really matter now."

She wasn't being sad, per se, but Garret was clearly getting the impression that her childhood hadn't been the merriest.

_She was locked in her room, alone, and didn’t see her own sister for more time than you’ve been a man._

"Your parents. They're the ones in the portrait back in the room, right?"

"They are. Did the dates give it away? Good deduction."

_Well, your mother is basically you with dark hair. Almost didn't need the dates._

"I'm sorry," Garret said.

Elsa put a hand in front of her mouth and she softly chuckled. He almost had to force himself to remember to breathe.

_Damn, she's beautiful._

"We're going through this another time?" Elsa asked in an amused tone. "You're going to apologize, I'm going to say: 'What are you apologizing for?' and then we're going back full circle, is that it?" she finished with an easy smile and a lifted eyebrow.

Garret mirrored her laugh with a sincere one, one of those few that felt _good_. "I do sense some history with that sentence. Mind refreshing my memory?" She shook her head and rolled her eyes in feigned annoyance at his antics. "Sounds like we found a common theme other than ice."

Elsa scoffed. "And witch-hunters, apparently."

"That too, but let's focus on the better parts," Garret added before they shared a quick and quiet laugh.

Elsa lightly rubbed her own arm as she gazed outside once again, a tiny ray of blue flashing in her eyes. "Speaking of ice, we still have to decide when to work on yours."

"That's still a thing?" Garret blurted out without thinking. He had tried to apply her advice about his ice's anchor points during his very immobile week, and he was starting to see some improvement, but he didn't think she'd be up to it again considering the circumstances.

"If you want to. _My_ powers are fine," Elsa answered.

Garret's eyes widened at the same time as his smile. "Is that _smugness_ I hear _,_ Your Majesty?" he cheekily asked.

Elsa slowly seemed to realize why he would say that. "N-No! Not at all!" she corrected with small panicked movements of her hands. "I mean, if you want to train, since the kingdom is going to run at idling speed for at least a few days, I can spare the time."

_She could use the distraction._

He noticed the intrigued glance she threw at him as he laughed once again. "Don't worry. I'm just sassing you," he reassured her in a mischievous tone. "And of course, I'd be happy to. Whenever you like."

Her features softened into a more serene expression. "Very well. I'll have Kai notify you when I'll be free."

They then both stood there, their gaze focused on the horizon behind the fjord.

"You're going to stay here?" Elsa asked after a few seconds.

"I told you, majesty. I don't think I am currently physically able to handle an Anna-tackle."

"You're exaggerating. She's not waiting behind the door."

Garret didn't answer. He simply clasped his hands behind his back and eyed her with a daring tinge of cockiness. He could still feel the little shards of ice on his hands, but they were far from being as worryingly big as they usually were.

Accepting the challenge, Elsa squared her shoulders and headed toward the gigantic door in a dignified stride. Garret's eyes followed her at first, but he finally turned back to the fjord and let his ears hear her heels click away as she neared the door, seemingly waiting a single moment before pulling it wide open. He just threw a smile at the window in front of him when he heard a sudden crash and two light, clearly feminine cries.

* * *

Elsa's morning was the most pleasant she'd had in a week. Anna had simply been an absolute delight the night before—she recalled the last time she'd had such a heartfelt conversation with her sister was just after another time of crisis.

She had been scared; she knew that. But what she hadn't noticed were the different causes of her fears. She had discovered it wasn't only the witch-hunters or the duke, while those still were terrifying. She, in truth, feared turning back to the old power-hiding, self-loathing and exceedingly depressed Elsa. The few hours she spent with Anna on her room's balcony had helped at least alleviate some of those fears. They were natural. But she knew she could fight them somehow.

And thus, that morning she felt like ice-making.

"I'll seek him at once, Your Majesty," Kai answered with a low bow. He then exited the small garden whose calm and serene atmosphere she relished. The start of her day had been oddly non-tumultuous, so much so that she found herself in front of the ancient and proud cluster of birches that stood on a platform in the middle of the pond without realizing it.

_I wonder if I can make him create a snowman too._

Elsa spent the next few minutes planning her lecture. She'd have to first see if he had a firm grasp of the linking technique she had taught him last week. From there on, she could show him how to project crystals onto each other to create imbrications and layered strata that could densify the ice. And after that, she could tackle the concept of keeping the water in liquid form until the rupture point so he could create anything quicker.

 _We have so much to review,_ she told herself with a quick sigh. Despite the circumstances of the lesson, she couldn't contain a small excited grin. For once, she could speak freely about her magic without feeling otherworldly. And there was someone there to understand her.

"Your Majesty," her pupil's surprisingly clear voice greeted her from behind. She turned around to see Garret making one of his awkward bows. She let out a quick chuckle.

"There's no need to put your arm in front of your chest, Garret," she said with another suppressed giggle. "Good morning."

The man attempted to answer, stammering, before finally just dropping his arm. “I knew I was doing something wrong.”

"That looks better. Shall we begin then?"

Garret met her eye-line with a determined glint. He was looking a lot less tired than usual.

"Yes, master," he said with a straight face. He stopped a few steps away from her.

"No need to call me master, either."

"I've always wanted to do that."

"You can do it with someone else."

"Aww."

Elsa shook her head, though her smile didn't disappear.

 _Spirits help me._ _I already have to deal with one over-excited redhead_.

"Anyways. Do you remember the triple-head linking technique?"

Garret regained a more serious demeanor. "I do, though I didn't really have time to perfect it." Without waiting for her to ask, he joined his hands and produced the same arrow he had created in her ice castle.

While he worked, and now that he wasn't wearing his large cloak, Elsa couldn't help but notice some of the scars on his fingers, his hands, his forearms, even that little one on his neck. And she was getting a distinct feeling that there were others. Many others, concealed under his clothes and inside his mind, witnesses of the person he was.

_Later._

"There you go," Garret said as he handed her the small projectile. Elsa almost took it from his hands before a flash of what had happened the first time she'd done that traversed her mind. Steeling her heart to resist the temptation, she glided her hand back to her side and politely signaled for him to bring the arrow closer to her instead. It was more crystalline, less opaque and exuded strength in a way his first attempt couldn't match. There was still a lot of progress to make, but he now had a solid foundation to build upon.

"Great!" she exclaimed with a clap of her hands. "Now, I want you to try something somewhat trickier," she stated as she lifted her clasped hands in front of her. The wave answered her call like a siren's chant, flowing out of her in an ethereal breath that materialized in the form of a statue the size of an apple representing Sven atop her now open palms.

"Now, I know the advice about love sounds somewhat whimsical, but I assure you that is how I see it. How I _feel_ it. I, however, think I oversimplified the idea last time. It doesn't have to be a person. Anything can do: A moment. A concept. A memory. All of these should work too." She had recently tried with the thought of that snowball fight she had had a few months ago with Anna, and it had worked just as well as if she had just kept her sister on her mind. "I strongly believe that, if you only focus on one thing, it'll come to you. Forget everything for a moment. Whatever's on your mind, let it go."

Garret threw a strange glance in her direction. Elsa wasn't certain whether her eyes deceived her, but she could detect a slight twitching in the corner of his lips. It seemed to disappear almost instantly however. She simply shook the image off when the soldier came closer and bent forward to observe her creation.

Garret took a deep breath when he finished studying the iced reindeer, sharply nodded and shut his eyes. Putting his hands together, he quite oddly looked like a monk diligently praying to his deity. Nothing happened for a few moments, even though his concentration visibly grew in intensity with each passing second. He sighed deeply, keeping his eyelids sealed.

"I'll try again," he said, once again not awaiting her reaction.

For whatever reason, Elsa's heart started beating a tiny bit faster seeing his shoulders tense up and brows furrow, and she could swear a streak of platinum surged and pulsed through a few strands of his crimson hair. She heard a very faint hum coming from his direction, ebullient and vibrant not unlike the soft melody he had crooned when emerging from the debts of unconsciousness. She got the distinct impression that his eyes burned blue for a fraction of a second when he opened them again before coming back to their usual light green. In the end, however, Garret released a long groan that made his entire chest heave. The task had proven too hard for him still.

_Oh. Too bad._

Elsa's first instinct was to appease him. "It's okay, Garret. I-I am already happy with what you achieved. You have a good grasp of—"

She let her unsaid words fly back to whatever part of her mind they had originated from when he slowly opened his hands for her. There, among the light calluses and small scars, she could discern a minuscule statue, very rough and bumpy. Alert ears, a long snout, four little paws, and even a tail. A wolf.

Her face adorned a bright smile as pride started swelling her chest. "You did it! This is amazing, Garret! You di—"

She lifted her eyes up to his face. Elsa was expecting him to be as elated as she was, if not even more.

She hadn't expected to see a single tear slowly rolling on his otherwise unflinching face.

Elsa gently walked closer. "G-Garret?"

As quickly as it had appeared, the frozen wolf disappeared into thin air with a puff of vapor, flying to the heavens as the now frozen teardrop plunged to the ground, shattering into a thousand crystals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hope you enjoyed this one! Thanks Grand-Paladin and SleepyEnigma for reviewing this chapter!
> 
> I know we're at a kinda slower pace for now, but it'll pick up soon enough. If you want to share anything with me, please go ahead!
> 
> Now onto the news: It is a possibility I won't be able to update next time - and next time only. Exams are here, and I'd rather make sure that I pass. If I have time, I'll try to release CH 10 on schedule but exams have priority. And if I don't post in 2 weeks, I'll release it in 3 weeks with an extra-long chapter to make up for it - my chapters already went from 4k to 7k words but hey! who's counting. Sorry in advance!
> 
> Another small thing, I am moving the update day to Sunday, because it lets me have Saturday to do a final review.
> 
> That's it for now. For next chapter's theme, YouTube search "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond" by Ella Roberts. Hope it gets you excited!
> 
> Edit: Little sneaky update. You may have noticed that the fic now has an official cover. It has been created by talented AzimuthZero. He's done an incredible job without asking anything in return, so the least I can do for him -and for you too, honestly- is to recommend you check out his The Ice Within and The Last Arendellian if you want well-crafted badass badassery! The Witching Hour is funny as hell, and It's The Butler also has some badassery, but not from whom you'd expect ;). If you go through here, thanks again, my man!
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	10. Icewalker

Cautiously approaching him a little more, Elsa took slow step after slow step as to not startle Garret. He had stood motionless for a few minutes stretched by confusion to what felt like hours.

"Is everything all right?" she softly asked while bringing her hands over her chest, worry starting to fill every inch of her body. Elsa was at a loss as to what was happening to him, what she could do and whether it was her fault.

Garret suddenly stumbled back as she had gotten closer, falling with a thud on the humid grass. His eyes were now as large as her own, his breaths quick and short, his arms stiffened. His respiration hastened with every second, and each of his gasped pants viciously sent a shiver down her spine—he looked like he was choking with every one of them. His hands went to his sides in a flash. He clutched them so hard he drained all the color from their visibly goose-bumped skin.

"Garret! What is going on? What do you want me to do?" Elsa's voice had begun to quiver as much as the soldier's limbs. Garret was still on the ground, his arms shaking and his forehead beading with frozen drops of sweat. He squeezed his eyes shut and lifted his face to the blue sky. The air around him grew colder, so much so that Elsa detected a faint glittering before her eyes and the grass tips near her were beginning to bend over from the added weight of the microscopic crystals gently settling atop. She slightly bent down, almost putting a hand to his shoulder before she suddenly flinched, drawing back at the last instant.

Even at such a moment, she couldn't get past her fear of touch.

Elsa frantically turned her head to the side.

"Kai! Kai!" she called, a hint of desperation in her voice. The chamberlain appeared near the entrance to the garden as if he had just popped out of a crack in the wall with a look of concern on his face. "He's having…something! Please bring—"

"No!"

Elsa briskly whirled her head back at Garret to see him lifting his left hand toward her with a single green eye open.

"I-I got this under con-control," he managed to express through his ragged breaths. He inhaled sharply through his teeth, closing that same eye back again.

_Under control? That's under control?_

"You're shaking!"

"It's going to stop in a few." This time his voice had been calm, poised, gentle. Immediately after he pronounced that sentence, he heavily exhaled and the glittering crystals disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. He opened his eyes fully this time, and the tremor in his limbs diminished little by little. His breathing slowly got back to a normal pace, the frozen droplets around his face melting into water that he almost dismissively swept off with the back of his hand. He kept his gaze fixed straight ahead, clearly avoiding direct eye-contact with Elsa. "And that should be the end of it."

_How-What-Why is he treating this so casually?_

"Garret, that wasn't a very reassuring display," she said. Her voice carried her worry as evidently as the wind carried autumn leaves. "I’m no doctor but something is clearly wrong," she continued as reproach that he could treat something like this so lightly started to creep into her tone.

Garret heavily sighed. "It always goes away eventually. I've already had to deal with this some—" He seemingly realized how much of a mistake it was to let that bit slip out when he abruptly held his breath to avoid finishing his phrase. The damage was already done however; Elsa felt her heart fall and a new form of heat, different from the one she had discovered a week before, rose in her chest.

_He's had these attacks regularly._

She took a few moments to reflect, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. Garret still refused to meet her eyes. Elsa knew he had let out a lot more than he intended to. Steeling her resolve with a slight nod, she walked away from the sitting soldier to have a word with Kai who was still standing near the garden's gate, awaiting her instructions.

"I would like you to notify Miss Greta of what just happened, please. Tell her to come as soon as she can, but to wait for me to call her in," she whispered.

Kai immediately bowed, soundlessly accepting her request. Elsa threw a kind smile his way.

"If I may," Kai's voice called back.

"Yes?"

"I believe I know what you intend to say, and I think it may not be what he wants to hear at the moment." He brought himself a little closer. "He may not need to hear anything, actually."

_What does that mean?_

"I've already had to deal with a similar situation, Your Majesty," Kai continued, motioning toward Garret with a rapid nod. He breathed a quick sigh. "I think he just had an anxiety attack. My…My brother had a few of those when we were young. Though this one seems to be less severe, I would advise against forcing anything out of Master Garret."

Elsa shot her eyebrows up in curiosity. "What do I do, then?"

Kai lifted the corners of his mouth in a sympathetic smile. He scanned Elsa's face for a while, and she swore she could see a glint of pride in his eyes. "You have come a long way."

Elsa could feel her own surprise show on her face. "In what regard?"

Kai simply shook his head. "Pardon me, excellency. It was nothing. But on the matter at hand, you do not have to do anything. He has to decide whether he wants to say something." On that note, the chamberlain bowed once again and silently exited the garden with catlike stealth, closing the door behind him.

Elsa was left thinking, letting his words stew in her mind. She slowly walked back to where she had left Garret sitting, his gaze low and without any light, only to see him struggling to get up as he clutched his back near his still healing injury.

"Garret, wait!" she said as she hurriedly stepped closer.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, excellency. I promise it is the last time you have to."

"Please do not move."

That sentence sounded a little harsher than she had initially intended—almost like an order—and made Garret stop moving immediately.

She wasn't sure what to do. Anna was a lot better than her at these types of things, she'd be the first to jump in to offer someone her help in such a situation. Elsa tightened her fists. She'd have to learn to be at least a tiny bit like her sister.

_I need to step up._

Elsa kneeled at his left side.

"Garret," she softly called. His gaze still avoided her face, giving no indication that he had even heard her. At this, her focus intensified. "I promise I'm not going to apologize again," she said with a small laugh that remained an orphan. Her face falling, Elsa continued. "I know we're not life-long friends. I know you came to our kingdom and only met chaos. But I think it may be beneficial for you to express what lies deep inside." She fiddled with her fingers in her lap, throwing glances here and there. She was making her speech up as she went along, something she usually never did. "Do you remember what I talked to you about the day we properly met?"

Garret silently nodded; he was listening.

She heaved a small breath. "One of my mistakes was bottling everything up. Not just my magic. I kept everything inside, and inevitably, it burst out. I don't want you to make that same mistake." She brought her gaze to the ground too. "I see how tired you look every day, how you think you're not worth the trouble. And I'm not only talking about our powers. I just want you to get it out. I think it would help you, as it helped me."

They sat without a word for a minute. She usually relished silences, but this one was heavy, thick, _ominous._

"It doesn't have to be me," Elsa added. She felt a little bit disappointed that she had to admit that, but she would have to deal with that another time. "Any open ear will do, and I think you'll find plenty with Anna, at least."

This time, to her surprise, Garret let out an honest-sounding chuckle. "Anna has ears for the entire world," he said.

_I really can't seem to grasp how humor works..._

Despite her short-lived confusion, Elsa slightly lit up. "She does, doesn't she?" She hesitantly scooched an inch closer. "Will you talk to her?" she asked, her tone hopeful.

Garret's shoulders slumped down. "I'm sorry but no."

Elsa wasn't following—she thought he'd seen reason. "Why not?"

"I don't do…talking. I still have trouble with that."

"Why?"

"Never really learned how to," he explained with a shrug.

Elsa was on the verge of repeating her entire speech when she remembered her ability to project herself onto his memories. "What if there was another way? Would you…?" she instinctively wondered aloud.

Garret finally brought his eyes to meet hers with a slight furrowing of his brows. "What do you mean by 'another way', majesty?"

Elsa took a long breath.

_How can I explain this?_

She lifted her hands and made a few vague gestures in the air, drawing hazy figures and imprecise shapes like an improvising conductor while deciding what to say.

Garret arched an eyebrow. "So, circles. Surrounded by other circles. Lots of circly things."

"No, um. It's…" Elsa let her hands fall back to her lap. "Ever since I took your arrow in my hand…I think I am able to see your memories when I touch your ice," she said with an unsure voice and a small wince. Garret looked mildly surprised, but frankly not as surprised as she thought he'd be. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before."

He seemed to sink in his thoughts for a few seconds. "To be fair, I was suspecting something like that," he said after a while.

_Well, not so difficult after all..._

Garret slowly scratched the back of his neck. "I knew that thing wasn't a hallucination."

_Wait, what?_

He didn't wait for her question to be asked. "I saw something when I first touched the ice on your castle up north," he explained. "My instincts told me it was a hallucination when I watched it rise up from afar. Now that I think about it again, the lady did look and sound exactly like you, Your Majesty."

Elsa couldn't contain her blush.

_He saw… that._

However, instead of mocking her as she had expected, Garret threw one of his large rejuvenating smiles in her direction. He brought his right knee closer to his body, his eyes not leaving hers. "So, that was a memory of yours. I want you to know I understand why it felt so good. And I did like the tune, for the record. Though you've got to teach me how to make ice play music like that."

Elsa wasn't stunned per se, but it felt a lot like she was.

_Even now, he's first thinking of anyone but himself._

Quickly getting ahold of herself, she curved her mouth into a quick beam.

"I experienced a form of freedom for the first time that night," she said fondly. "It was a unique sensation, a thrill I still seek to this day. But my point stands. You can show me, rather than tell me, if you want," she added, sincerely hoping he would accept.

The soldier's amused yet tender gaze hardened. He scanned Elsa's face for a bit. "How much can this allow you to see?"

"Grand Pa-The ancient talking rock from last week said that it depends on the construct I use. The more emotionally charged it is, the more I get to view."

Garret's eyes immediately darted to and back from his leg.

_The memories from that may be a bit too much for now._

"The wolf from earlier would do nicely," Elsa hastened to say. Garret looked a bit more relaxed. "Unless...Will it cause the same reaction?" she asked while lightly biting her nail.

"I don't think so, to be honest. I wasn't really expecting it to show up. Now that I know it'll come out, it should go a lot smoother. If I can create it again."

That could be the first step. "I believe in you," Elsa said.

Garret's eyes slightly narrowed. He kept his gaze locked on her for a moment.

"What do they say? Never go against the word of the queen?" he eventually bantered with a sly smile.

"I could have made it an order," Elsa answered with a shrug.

"True. I should count myself lucky."

The small glance they shared made Elsa feel a lot lighter. How he was able to cheer up so quickly was beyond her but she nonetheless marveled at it and followed him in his good humor despite herself. She wasn't going to complain about it, was she?

Garret heaved a deep sigh and nodded once. He then concentrated again as he clasped his hands together tightly. He managed to recreate the small wolf with a noticeable effort and brought his hand forward for her to grab it. She lightly winced.

"I should have mentioned. I'm not really comfortable when it comes to touch," Elsa said. "Could you please lay it down?"

The soldier did not pry. He simply nodded in understanding and delicately put the frozen wolf amidst the pearly grass blades between them - an insistent reminder of his unexpected outburst.

Elsa brought her fingers to graze the minuscule statue. She stopped at the last inch, throwing another questioning look toward him. His eyes settled on hers with an intense gaze, as if he was debating one last time whether it was a good idea. Whatever the conclusion he reached in his head was, he gave Elsa a nod as sharp as the ones he had always given her. His mind had been made. She responded with a small smile, closed her eyes and touched the ice.

At first, nothing happened. She could still sense the wind gently play with the locks of her hair. She could still smell the delicate perfume of her garden's flowers. She could still feel the familiar sensation of frozen crystals on her fingers. She could still detect the sun's warmth spreading across her back. She kept her eyes closed.

Slowly, emotions started to bloom into her mind. Happiness. Fear. Disgust. Pride. A feeling of power. Strong, steadfast, unrelenting. She kept her eyes closed.

After those came the full sensations. Heat. Cold. Hurt. Comfort. Laughter in her throat. Sadness in her eyes. They started out faint and small. Then they grew bigger and bigger. They became memories. Flashing. Whirling. Not hers. How she could tell she did not know. She kept her eyes closed.

Then she was a bit lost. Her small lungs filled with crisp air. The first of her tears triggered her father's. She felt at home, near her family, where she belonged. Her mother's happy cries mirrored her own. Her song echoed in her ears.

Then, at last, she was outside. She giggled and grinned. Fell and cried. She cleaned the mud off her knees and her face. She caught the ball, threw it back again at her father. She lost a tooth, purchased a pretty flower. Her mother's smile was as radiant as the sun.

Then she knew. She cried at first, but the tears were wiped. Not her hands, _her_ hands. She marveled at the new sensation, at the new possibilities. She sculpted, just like _she_ did. The products of her efforts were not as beautiful, but they were hers. The wolf howled and the owl hooted.

Then she was relieved. She didn't know how to describe it. He hadn't been angry—he had been proud. The honor would be immense, the name would become grand. He saw her as his child. Her mother was worried, but surely everything would be alright. She held her head and sang.

Then she was focused. Mission after mission, always first came the nation. The armor was there, the bow was too. She never had to use them, but at least she had the two. She felt honored at first, horrified, stoic and eventually numb. She had become a tool and she knew it, but at least she still could hum.

Then she made a mistake. She felt nothing. The armor had been a curse, the bow its enabler. Her father looked the other way. Her mother cupped her cheek and sang like she always did. She said he'd come around—she doubted he'd ever talk to her again. The wolf howled but the owl had disappeared.

Then she smelled it. And heard it. And roared. And slashed. And cried. She stopped singing. He lashed at her. The quiet was her only companion.

A loud noise suddenly resounded, blowing into the open with the sound of broken glass. Elsa opened her eyes, slowly getting her bearings back from the strange flashes that had just surged through her mind.

_What just happened?_

She couldn't describe what she had gone through. It had felt so _real_ , yet she was certain she had experienced something that wasn't hers. Had she been in Garret's shoes for a few moments? She couldn't shake the impression it had been for a lot more. Had it been his entire life?

Her questions faded away when she noticed where she stood.

The village's central plaza was dark and cold and silent. That same village. She brought her head a bit to the left, where the rim of the woods met the paved rough stone. A house in the corner.

_His house?_

She pressed forward. Stopping shortly before she reached the entrance, Elsa readied her knock. However, she heard a faint whimper inside, like a wounded animal's. She instinctively reached for the handle, only to watch in stupor as her hand disappeared into the polished wood.

 _Of course,_ she thought. _I can't interact with memories._

Gently closing her hand, she stepped forward into the house's interior, discovering a cozy and warm home draped in strange, yet elegant clothes covered in striped patterns of gold and bronze. The lit fireplace illuminated the empty salon with a gentle flicker. The hall opened on a counter of sorts that housed a well-furnished kitchen to the right. From the left, Elsa heard that same whimpering from before, more insistent and gripping. Crossing the wall into the room from where the sound seemed to originate, she found herself in a little boy's chamber. On the wall shelves stood an incalculable amount of small sculptures of what looked like glossy animals made of wood. Not only animals but also people, some buildings even. At the center, on its own shelf, a wolf that bore a striking resemblance to another one made of crystal ice. It was indeed wooden as all the other sculptures were, yet it shone with a slight ethereal aura that reminded her of her own magic.

_You're here too, huh?_

In the small bed in the corner, a bump in the blanket twitched and trembled.

"Hey there, young Garret," she greeted affectionately, though she immediately remembered the little boy couldn't hear her. She wasn't sure of it, but Elsa heard teeth chattering just before another of those whimpers startled her.

She took a closer look at the boy and made out his full head of disheveled crimson hair, though his obvious shaking started worrying her very quickly. Shards of ice were beginning to protrude from the side of his bed's frame, and she even caught their faint glimmer on his cheek and above his collarbone. His shivering only intensified as more seconds passed.

"You're cold!" she realized aloud. She didn't think someone like her could feel the cold, much less suffer from it.

The moment she spoke, the door opened abruptly, letting a woman sweep inside. The lamp she was holding drew icy shadows against the walls but allowed Elsa to have a clear look at her face. For a moment, she had the distinct impression that she was looking at a female and one-head-shorter version of present-day Garret. Understanding quickly that she was in the presence of someone from his family, she quickly eliminated the possibilities. They looked too much alike for her to be anything other than his mother.

Elsa took a second to examine her. She didn't think it possible at first, but her long and silky hair was of a red even deeper than the young man's, bordering on the particular shade of garnets and reaching down to the middle of her back. Their eyes were exactly identical in both shape and color, and it seemed they also shared the same nose and mouth down to every cell. The only notable difference—apart from their gender—was the numerous freckles that were sprinkled on the woman's face while they were completely absent from her son's. Or were they? Elsa doubted her own memory for a moment. A quick check on the boy's visage confirmed her prediction.

 _She's incredibly beautiful,_ she thought.

The woman hurriedly kneeled near the boy's bed, slowly cradling his head in her arms while gently attempting to hush his quivers away. "Don't worry, luv," she said, though worry was ironically clear in her own voice and features.

Her accent was thick, even thicker than her son's. While Garret didn't have any trouble making himself understood and almost made his locution one of his quirks, Elsa had to exert herself to understand his mother.

_Maybe she doesn't come from here?_

The red-haired woman interrupted her thoughts by uttering a short gasp as she yanked her hands away from her son.

"He's bloody freezing," she murmured, her eyes wide. She took a second to steel her conviction and delicately lifted Garret's small silhouette into her arms. Judging from his size alone, the boy couldn't be older than four or five. His mother enlaced his entire body with her own, her teeth starting to chatter in turn.

"No, don't!" Elsa uselessly warned, taking a single step forward.

"There ye go, little one," Garret's mother said in between short breaths. Her back was starting to shake from the cold that seemed to seep through every pore of her skin and into her very bones.

The boy's eyes opened slowly, until comprehension washed over his face. "Mum?" he called in his still high-pitched voice. He took a frantic look around him, noticing the now very significant trembling in the limbs that were tenderly holding him tight, then his mother's visible breath slowly drifting before his eyes and finally the sharp edges of crystal protruding from around his shuddering body. He loudly gasped, bringing the woman's attention to his face.

"It's okay, love. I'll keep ye warm. Go back to sleep."

She then began humming. A soft and melodious purr that felt familiar to Elsa's ears.

_That's what he sings!_

The boy's green eyes indicated a slight sense of impending panic, yet he didn't seem to succumb to it. He furrowed his brows and tightened his little fists, grunting in keen concentration. Little by little, the ice shards around the pair melted away, and the heavy mist that had settled vanished. His mother's shoulders relaxed, but she didn't stop her crystalline croon.

"Sorry, Mum," Garret's voice whispered as he buried his head into her neck. The faint chanting stopped for a second.

"No, my precious boy. Don't be."

As the young Garret drifted back to sleep, tears emerged on the woman's face, though Elsa couldn't tell if they were of relief or sadness.

"Oh Lord, child of the sun. May you watch over him for another day," she said as she muffled her cries, bringing her forehead to gently touch her slumbering son's.

The house's walls suddenly spun around Elsa. Shaking off the slight dizziness, she was blinded for a moment by the thick rays that were now spiraling through the thin curtains on the window before her. The room was radically different now, less ornate and more functional, but the floor had clearly suffered the pangs of time. Of all the wooden sculptures, only the wolf was still on the shelf, shining like it did an instant—and probably years—before.

Someone sniffed outside.

"I can't believe the next time I see ye, ye're gonna be a knight…" Elsa heard Garret's mother's voice mutter. "My precious boy! Oh God-freaking-dammit, I shan't call ye that anymore…"

The deep tone that answered her she recognized immediately. "Technically, I will be made Companion, Ma'. They're calling me Knight because they have to, but really they're just giving Pa' what he wants so he can shut it. I was useful to them but there's a limit to what they'll do for a random country bumpkin. And you can still call me whatever the hell you want."

Elsa traversed the stone walls to see the Garret she knew holding his mother in his arms in front of the house's porch while she was delicately blowing her nose in a wonderfully florid handkerchief. Traces of grey were starting to appear in the roots of her hair, but they still burned a bright red overall. Garret was obviously much older now, though Elsa noticed the surprising absence of scars on his arms. She quickly eyed his left leg; while it was hidden under a large band of tissue, she could discern a border of flesh just before his boots.

"Aye, yer father doesn't like it when I call him Mo Chridhe anymore... He says it reminds him too much of when he was young and stupid."

"To be fair, he is an old man, now. Still stupid though," Garret comforted with a grin.

His mother half-seriously slapped his shoulder. "Don't talk about yer Pa' this way. He's proud of ye."

"I'm just joking, Ma'. He wouldn't understand it anyway," he added stealthily. Another slap followed, Garret laughing it away. "Do you want me to give him anything?"

"Why yes, dear. Give him a warm hug and tell him he'd better bring his buttocks here before I forget what he looks like."

"Will do. I'll drag him by his pants if I have to," Garret concluded with a sharp salute. His mother broke his solemn gesture by embracing him as hard as she apparently could, judging from the bulging of her son's eyes and the blue tint that appeared on his face.

Elsa smiled warmly. It was obvious they were very close. She resisted the urge to sigh as memories of her own mother rushed back for a moment.

As unexpectedly as the first time, her surroundings spun again.

Ruins everywhere, still blackened and smoking. Some limbs stuck out from under some demolished houses, motionless. Suppressing a hiccup from the horrid smell, Elsa pinched her nose as quickly as she could and almost tumbled over. She quickly created as much distance from the rubble as she could. Distant shouts made their way to her ear. She faced in their direction, seeing an entire carriage lifting a cloud of dust up as it sped out of the destroyed town.

She wasn't around the village anymore. Or at least she hoped she wasn't.

A heavy stomp startled her from the other side. She faced away from the town's exit and caught sight of the same armored man from her first venture through Garret's memories. Not having time to process her surroundings, her first instinct was to cower behind the closest loaf of wall still standing, except this time she didn't perceive the same menacing aura, the same desire to kill—the eyes behind the mask did not glow with untamed rage. Instead, the entire demeanor was firm, dignified, almost proud. The armor's edges were softer, the joints rounder, and the overall piece less bulky. It emanated a sense of security and assurance.

The man walked into the evening's misty light, allowing Elsa to recognize the pale blue shimmering of the armor's plates. She squinted her eyes to get a better look and could now discern some strands of hair on the hawk-like helmet's top.

Strands of _red_ hair.

_Wait. Is that…?_

With the new possibilities in mind, she took her time examining the armor in further detail. There were no straps, oddly enough. The larger parts seemed to be forged from a single piece, which made little sense in her eyes; Jürden had one day explained that he already had trouble moving in a suit made of hard cloth and leather. She concentrated a bit more and noticed that the most external parts were almost transparent. Some green tints flashed on them, perplexing Elsa at first until she understood that the armor was reflecting the surrounding leaves' color like a mirror. And when she heard a slight crack, it struck her like lightning.

_The armor's made of ice._

The helmet decomposed suddenly into thick vapor, revealing a familiar face contorted into a pained grimace.

Garret released a heavy sigh. "You just _had_ to do it," he said out loud, thinking himself alone—which he was, under the circumstances. He turned his back to Elsa, alerted by some ruffling amidst the debris behind him. "No, no, no. Don't come out."

One, two, three little heads emerged from behind the rubble with fearful eyes. Children.

"Where are they?" the youngest one shakily asked after Garret hurriedly got to their side, shifting his body so that it would hide the somber spectacle behind his back.

"They fled. They won't come back here, I promise," he answered. "Now, go back in."

"No, where are _they?_ " the child insisted with a sniff.

This time, no response was heard.

"Companion!" a voice shouted from below. Five huge men in black and green apparel appeared from what Elsa understood was the main crossroads, each carrying an enormous metallic rifle that she was sure weighed as much as she did. They all towered over her, with arms as large as her own legs. "What in the bloody fucking hell did you do?"

Garret stood upright. "Accomplished my task, sir."

"Really now. Where did they go?"

"I don't know."

"Do they have the asset?"

"No, they don't. It had to be destroyed."

The man turned a hard gaze Garret's way. "Did they see you?" He pointed to him with his finger. "Like this?"

The armor slowly disintegrated into a dense cloud of specks flying away like a furrow of shiny cinders, leaving Garret in a similar garment to the company that had joined him uphill. One faint glimmer remained, however, breaking through the fabric of his left pocket—Elsa guessed that same wolf was in there. "They… They did, sir."

The man's head dropped. "This is bad."

Garret closed his eyes. "Yes, it is."

Another spin made Elsa's head feel dizzy.

She was now facing the same woods near Garret's hometown, the pines' branch gently leaning up and down with a soft swish. Letting her gaze linger a bit beyond, she realized with striking horror that what she recognized to be Garret's house was now nothing more than a steaming crater where a mixture of wood planks, scattered ash, and red cloth banked up in a messy pile.

Then there was heat in her back. A rancid odor. The crackling of fire. Elsa almost didn't need to turn around to know what stood behind her back. She did anyways.

The stake burned hot, the silhouette inside still unmoving. Elsa repressed her urge to throw her hands at it, to suffocate the inferno with powder snow. She instead did her best to ignore the stench, linked her hands in front of her chest and closed her eyes in silent deference.

The smell, the noise, the heat all disappeared.

When she opened her eyes again, Garret was in front of her—and she was too. They were both sitting on the ground a few inches away from each other.

 _What?_ she mentally yelped as confusion slipped its way into her mind. _Why is there another me?_

Then she understood that memory she had just lived herself a few minutes earlier.

"If I can create it again."

Her past self wasn't noticing how close they actually were from one another, but she certainly was.

"I believe in you," Elsa heard her own voice say.

And with that, the void opened beneath her feet and her heart jumped to her throat.

* * *

Elsa opened her eyes in the exact same place she was an instant before. Garret was still sitting with his legs crossed, carefully eyeing her for any semblance of a reaction. She recalled that only a fleeting moment had gone by for him.

She took some time to regain her composure and let her mind adjust back to reality, discreetly leaning back an iota. So many things to say, so many questions to ask. The visions had been a patchwork of different snippets of his life, but Elsa started by what she could understand was a common thread across all but one.

"This wolf. It was hers. It was your mother's. And-"

She didn't finish her sentence. Garret simply nodded.

"I know it's not… It's never easy," Elsa continued with sincere sympathy. "I understand what it feels like."

Garret lifted his eyes to the sun, protecting them from its pure shine with his right hand. "I wish I could've said goodbye."

"It was obvious she loved you very much."

"She did."

"And her song is beautiful."

A smile appeared on his face, but this one exuded a melancholy worthy of her castle's paintings and strangely appeared mournful to Elsa's eyes. It vanished in a flash, however, replaced by a more upbeat but less sincere grin.

"She always said it wasn't really a song, more like a poem she heard up North. There is a dance that comes with it, you know? It's done in twos or threes, and you basically...just spin around without paying much attention to each other," he explained with a scoff while mimicking the rotation with his fingers. Garret chuckled lightly. "Anyways. It's funny that a person who can manipulate ice is trying to warm my heart."

Elsa's enthusiasm followed his lifted spirits, though she knew he was still holding onto something. "I'm always searching for new forms of magic."

There'd be more time later. This was already a step forward.

Garret chuckled again, bringing his eyes to hers. The hurt hadn't left them, but they were shining with unprecedented vitality. "That said, you were right. I don't really know why or how, but it does feel good to tell myself there's someone who—"

"Understands?"

"—knows. Just knowing is enough. I won't lie, it almost feels as good as having to kick some ars—I mean, having the opportunity to fight some stupid people."

Elsa noted the quick change in the conversation. He appeared at ease, but he always diverted the subject from himself as soon as he was able to, sometimes in a very non-subtle way much like this particular occurrence. Something she wouldn't have paid much attention to had she not done it herself so many times before.

_There is no point in pushing further. This has been hard enough._

She shrugged with a single shoulder, sending her braid flying to her back. "What if they're trained?"

"All the better!" Garret exclaimed with a laugh as he lifted his arms.

"Better?" Elsa asked, her interest genuinely piqued.

"A stupid untrained man will be erratic, an intelligent untrained man will know he has to run, and a clever trained man will simply make your life difficult. The best you can hope for is a stupid trained man."

Elsa quirked an eyebrow. "Why is that? Doesn't his training get him better odds than the untrained...not-very-bright...person?"

Garret's eye twinkled with a tinge of mischief. "Nope, trained men who happen to be idiots are the best kind because they're predictable. They can't think of anything else to do than what they were taught."

"Oh."

"So, if you know what they were taught, you know their next move. Unless you're dumb yourself, of course."

Elsa's eyelashes batted faster than a butterfly's wings.

"Whi-Which I'm not saying you are!" Garret corrected the instant he understood the implications of his own sentence. "Well, you're not really trained either, and—And I'm not just saying that it means—But you're far from—" He met her gaze again and heavily sighed when he noticed that she was suppressing a laugh. "I'm going to shut up now."

"I'll gladly admit it is indeed impressive how you dug yourself into a hole without any help."

"Please don't strike a man when he's down."

Elsa stifled another laugh. It felt good to forget about everything for a little while.

The garden's door opened slightly, prompting the pair to turn around in a quick joined motion.

"Your Majesty? Please excuse my intrusion," Greta called. "Kai told me you needed me but explained that I should wait. I've been standing here for some time now, and I was just wondering if it wasn't an emergency, because he made it sound like it was?"

And just like that, the uplifting mood was dropped down to the ground with the force of an acre-foot of ice falling from the top of the North Mountain.

Elsa got up to her feet and quickly dusted her crystal dress. "It's okay Miss Greta, I thank you for coming. Garret needs a quick check-up here, please."

The nurse nodded solemnly. "At once, Milady."

"I bid you farewell then, Garret," Elsa said to the still sitting man beside her.

"Goodbye, excellency," he answered. "And just so you know,” he added in a hushed whisper. "None of those I'd have called my friends would have done this for me. First, because they probably couldn't, but also because they certainly wouldn't." He gave a reverent nod in lieu of a more ceremonious bow. "You have my gratitude," he finished with what she would from then on dub the 'Garin' plastered on his face.

She answered with a serene smile. "Anytime."

She then walked out of the garden, heaving a short breath on her way.

Elsa's heart filled with a new feeling. She had _helped_ someone _._ And not because she had had to, as queen. While her duties had been an honor to fulfill, they had always felt impersonal and distant to her. She loved her country and her subjects, but their problems were rarely more than a piece of paper or a short argument in court from her perspective. This time, it had felt real, grounded. It felt like she'd done something for _someone_.

_As a...friend?_

Was that what they were now? Friends? After two weeks? She didn't bother to know, and it didn't really matter.

Garret had spent all his time in Arendelle helping her in a way or another and she was starting to pay her debt back. He had opened up to her.

Before disappearing into the castle's depths, she threw one last glance at him, noticing that he had started massaging his left leg. She closed the heavy door behind her.

_What was that?_

She had felt something go when Greta had opened the door. Something that she couldn't exactly pinpoint. She had to find Anna. She wanted to talk to her.

Grand Pabbie's words of warning unanticipatedly came back to her while she walked.

She first checked her sister's room. No one.

 _He looked absolutely miserable, yet he still managed to be buoyant. How could someone like that ever have been a hardened soldier?_ she wondered.

She opened the door to the family salon, sighing heavily when she didn't find her sister. Again.

_Where is she?_

Heading downstairs as a last resort, she found Kai near the kitchens. Anna was in the barracks, with Einar.

_What is she doing there?_

Two successive images of Garret's ice armor pictured themselves in her thoughts. The first had been terrifying, monstrous and frightening. The second was calm, glowing and protective.

 _I used those same adjectives on myself at different points in my own life_ , she thought, her shoulders sinking in silent remembrance of darker times.

Elsa stopped in a corridor. She knew where she was. Her father's coronation portrait was proudly hanging a few feet above the ground, not far from her. She got close, gingerly grazing the painting's golden frame, taking in every detail of what had inspired fear into her not an entire year ago.

She delicately brought a strand of her hair behind her ear while hugging herself tightly.

_People are complicated. Aren't they, Father?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: So remember that thing about exams? Nevermind, I had time to write anyway. I hope you enjoyed this one! Many thanks to GrandPaladin and SleepyEnigma for reviewing this chapter!
> 
> A few things:
> 
> \- Most importantly: half-way point for this first arc! Phew, 55k words and we still have 10 chapters to go! Thanks for sticking with this story and I hope what comes next gets you excited.
> 
> \- Since I made the edit after a day or so last time, some of you may have not noticed that the fic now has an official cover, courtesy of illustrious AzimuthZero! Give it a look, it's at the beginning of Chapter 1- I think it's very cool!
> 
> \- Together with Snowfall-in-Summer and Bearhow, we decided to write a crossover of our three stories. It's called Ice, Fire, Shadow, you can find it on my account and I really encourage you to check it out - I had loads of fun writing it, and I hope you do as well reading it. Only 1 chapter for now, but it'll get bigger in no time!
> 
> Same remark as last time concerning exams, but I doubt it's going to hinder the next update.
> 
> Otherwise, if you want to put yourself in the mood for the next chapter, search Kneel Before The Crown by audimoachine, it is on YouTube.
> 
> And that's it for now, see you next time!
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	11. Mirum

Anna fell hard on the ground, panting for air. The wooden sword slipped from her hands as she wiped the sweat from her drenched face.

_It hurts. It hurts so much. I didn't think it would hurt this much. Why does it hurt so much?_

"Thi...This is waaaay harder than...than it looks," she huffed, sweeping her arms through the air in front of her to emphasize her point.

Einar bent forward and gingerly picked up the practice weapon from the ground.

"It is, Ma'am. The art of swordsmanship is not something anyone would grasp in a single session." He took a few steps towards the still untouched dummy that stood against the wall behind Anna. "Now that you’re used to the sword's weight, we will try that combination on an actual target. Please, start with the standard stab and then follow it up with a horizontal swing to the abdomen."

"In a…In a minute."

"Very well, Your Highness." Einar lifted his gaze to the side, where some recruits were observing their princess's training session while ignoring their own. "As you were, cadets. I don't want to have to tell you again," he said with authority, prompting the trainees to hurriedly stumble back to where they were trading blows.

Kristoff, sitting in the corner on a crate, smiled smugly at Anna with his arms crossed above his chest. "In no time, was it?"

"Hush. I'm dying," Anna said with difficulty as she tried to raise an accusatory finger before it fell limply with a thud at her side. "Have som-some respect."

"Oh, I'm having respect. Poor little thing."

_He's probably smiling like an idiot._

Anna mustered an incredible effort to lift her head off the ground and towards Kristoff.

_And he's smiling like an idiot._

She tried to scowl in her boyfriend's direction but exhaustion took her and she fell back. "I don't have enough sugar in me to be mad at you right now."

"We'll get you some chocolate when you're done."

The corners of her mouth quirked up into a smile. "Oh, you know how to talk to me."

Kristoff amusedly shrugged with his eyes closed. "Force of habit."

Anna snorted loudly. "All right. Let's do this thing," she said with a determined nod. Her muscles were screaming and begging for mercy, but she still pushed hard against the ground and managed to stand upright—not without a little swaying. "Those morons are still out there while I'm here gathering dust."

"The scouting parties are still sweeping our surroundings," Einar said. "But they haven't noticed anything in eight days, Ma'am."

"Can I have the sword, Einar, please?"

She took the wooden blade from the captain's extended hand and prepared to fall into the stance he had shown her a few moments before.

_Okay. Left foot back. Right foot upfront and facing straight. Then right elbow down, left one up. Shoulders loose, back straight._

She saw Einar nodding approvingly as she lifted the sword to her left cheek, facing forward in an aggressive posture. She must have nailed it down.

Glancing back ahead, she singled the dummy in front of her from the others around it.

_As unmoving as a dummy will ever be._

While she concentrated, its face morphed, transforming into a faceless goon like the ones who tried to kidnap her or the ones who attacked the ice castle. Anger rose from her stomach, burning like a flame lusting for action.

If they wanted her sister, they'd have to get through _her_ first.

Anna sharply inhaled and propelled herself, driving her entire body with the power of her legs. She swung as far as she could and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact. The vibrations of the first strike traveled up her arm and shook her to her core. She kept her eyelids shut and bent down, channeling all her force in her hips as Einar had explained. She pivoted, keeping her weapon at her side until she was rocked when its dull blade met the dummy’s scruffy and padded left side.

She opened her eyes after taking a step back, her heart racing inside her chest as if she had just run all around Arendelle.

Kristoff audibly whistled and clapped while Einar looked at her thoughtfully and advanced.

"Very good, highness," the latter complimented. "I must say I am honestly impressed. Few people can execute it properly on their first trial." Anna couldn't contain a cocky smile at the praise. "However," he continued after he visibly noticed it. "There are still a lot of things to correct. First and most important, you have to keep your—"

"Eyes up and sharp, boys," one of the older trainees shouted up from the other side of the barracks. Einar huffed in annoyance at the interruption and was about to berate the cadets again when they suddenly stood at attention. "Her Majesty the Queen."

"Anna?" she heard her sister's voice call behind her in that 'I can't believe it' voice she never liked the sound of.

The princess winced through exhaustion and forced an upbeat expression on her face before turning around. "Heeeeey, sis'! How's ya doin'?"

Elsa crossed the last couple steps of stairs and slowly approached Anna with her hands clasped together, her eyes tight and her lips pursed in worry. "What are _you_ doing?" She stopped a few feet away from Anna and took a long look at the practice sword she was still holding. "You're learning how to fight?"

_No sense in trying to get me out of this._

"Okay, yes, I am," Anna said. "I…I'm learning how to handle a sword."

Elsa's eyes were disbelievingly wide. "Why?" she whispered.

"Because they wouldn't teach me boxing. They said a punch doesn't reach far enough," she half-joked. Understanding that it may not have been the best moment to crack a jest, Anna stepped a bit closer and cleared her throat while firmly gripping her mock weapon. "Because you never know. What we…talked about last week… It made me realize how unprepared I would be. And I made a promise to stand with you—"

"You didn't promise me anything," Elsa said with a vigorous shake of her head.

"I promised it to myself," Anna explained. "Listen. We don't know what might happen." Elsa opened her mouth to speak again. Anna was faster, however. "I know what you're going to say. I'm not doing this because I'm looking for a fight. I'm not doing this because I want to go out there and chop whoever's coming after you in little, small, minuscule star-shaped pieces—"

"That's' a bit too specific…"

"—and I'm not doing this for an obscure reason, Elsa. I'm just starting out for pity's sake!"

"If I may, Your Majesty?" Einar intervened with a slight bow. He continued when he received an inviting nod. "I wholeheartedly endorse Her Highness's initiative. It never hurts one to be able to defend themselves. Especially in such times."

Elsa intently scanned Anna's face, her gaze jumping up from her to a nodding Kristoff, then to a visibly content Einar.

"You too, Einar? You're supposed to be the voice of reason…"

"Of course, Milady. I believe I still am."

"And I swear I'll try not to walk into any wolf's den," Anna added with a roll of her eyes.

Elsa stayed silent for a minute. She then released a resigned sigh. "Lion."

She had spoken in such a small voice that Anna hadn't heard her. "Whassdat?"

"Lion," Elsa repeated with a timid smile. "It's 'walk into the _lion_ 's den'."

_She's agreeing! I would have thought she'd try to fight this a bit more…_

"Bah, you got the idea," Anna said with a flick of her wrist. She smiled in turn. "And little bonus, I don't have to do that routine Kai made for us anymore! I have my daily exercise!"

Elsa seemed confused for a moment about what she was referring to. "Wait…You still do that?" she eventually asked in bewilderment.

"Yes, she does," Kristoff answered in Anna's stead.

"But-That was more than a decade ago!"

Anna stood tall. "Yes, it was."

"And it involves hoops!"

"Yup, it does."

"And hopscotch…"

"That too. So yeah, I’mma stop that and focus on this instead!" Anna said with pride. "And don't worry sis'. This time I promise to _you_ that I'll never put myself in danger if I can help it."

Elsa kept her gaze locked on her sister's eyes. "Do you swear it?"

Anna straightened her back and lifted her right hand. "On whoever invented chocolate. Bless their soul."

"O-Okay then," Elsa assented with a sigh.

"Aww you're the best!" Anna exclaimed as she launched herself forward to bring Elsa into a quick hug. However, her sister instinctively flinched away, and Anna’s face drained of color.

"You're a bit… too sweaty right now," Elsa abashedly said, pointing at her shirt and making her realize just how wet it was. "I promise to give you back that hug as soon as you are clean," she hurriedly added, obviously fearing that she could have hurt her sister's feelings. "I'd just rather you showered first."

The color returned to Anna's cheeks and a devilish smile appeared on her lips. "What if I decide to cash it in now?"

"Please, no."

"I'm feeling veeeeery weak," the princess continued while exaggeratedly lifting a hand to her forehead.

"No more snowgies if you hug me in that state," Elsa warned while clearly repressing a grin, instantly getting Anna to reevaluate her priorities. "But I came here for something else, actually."

_Oh, yeah. What is she doing here?_

"Can we talk a bit privately?" Elsa continued.

"Sure. Einar? I'll be back in a few."

The captain bowed respectfully. "Of course, Ma'am."

"Do you want Kristoff, too?" Anna asked with a quick nod towards him.

"No, actually. Just you and me this time. Sorry, Kristoff…"

"Understood. I was just leaving anyway," the young man answered with a shrug. "Might go see Sven or Garret."

Elsa's eyes widened slightly as if she had just realized something. "If you go to see Garret…" she said in haste. "Please, be mindful."

Kristoff looked confused for a moment, but he nodded firmly after a few seconds. "I know just the thing." He then disappeared up the stairs.

"Wait. Garret's not okay?" Anna asked.

"That’s actually why I'm here," Elsa responded. "I was training with him on his magic this morning…"

"You were _training_ with him? And you didn't call me?"

Elsa looked surprised. "Wha-Why would I?"

"You know I love to see you do your…things!" Anna tentatively explained with a few weird movements of her hands. "Don't you dare forget me, next time!"

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind. But let's get back to the topic," she resumed. "So, in the middle of it, he starts having an anxiety attack."

Anna felt her heart fall.

_An…An anxiety attack?!_

"Is he okay?" she worriedly asked.

Elsa nodded with that timid smile she adored. "He is now. And that's what I wanted to speak to you about. We…I was going to say that we talked…But really it-it was something else… Do you remember what I told you back at the ice castle?"

"Yeah…" Anna answered.

"Well, it turns out I can read his memories! And then we actually talked for a bit and it felt…it felt good. Like I'd been there for someone. He thanked me after that, and it looked sincere!"

Anna couldn't believe her eyes. She would never have guessed she'd one day see what she would earnestly qualify as a 'big goofy grin' on Elsa's face.

"I can imagine!" she sincerely said, still analyzing every inch of her sibling's expression. However, right at that moment, her sister's features darkened slightly.

"But…"

"But what…?"

Elsa shook her head as if eliminating a thought from her mind. "When we talked…I forgot about… _now._ About all that's happening," she continued while hugging herself tightly. She always did that whenever she was fazed by something. Anna's best guess was that she instinctively copied the gesture of wrapping their mother's scarf around her even when the piece of red and brown cloth wasn't encircling her shoulders.

_She's just realizing how she properly copes._

"It's normal, Elsa."

"Is it?"

"Yeah! You spent a good moment with someone whose company you seem to enjoy! It honestly just sounds like you made a friend."

"But, if I forgot about _everything_ this time, it means I can do it again…"

"Hey. Let's think this through together, okay?" Anna said. "You do feel that with me, right?" Her sister stayed silent. Anna feigned a shocked expression. "If you answer 'no' to this question, I think I'm going to lose it. We just had a duffel battle yesterday!"

Elsa lightly laughed. "Yes. Yes, I did."

"Good save. Now, did it change anything? Except make you feel good on the spot?"

"I guess not…"

"And there you have it!" Anna excitedly concluded.

_I think you're just used to doing it with me._

"You're sure it's okay?" Elsa's shy glance up almost made Anna's heart explode on the spot.

"You are too precious for this world. I'm trying very hard not to squeeze you to death right now."

"Pre-Precious? Squeeze? Death?!"

Anna ignored her sister's yelp. "You can allow yourself some leeway, Elsa. I'm not saying to stop worrying altogether, but you don't have to feel mortified every single second, do you?"

"I-I guess it wouldn't be very efficient."

"All is well, then! Hope I untangled the mystery in your heart," Anna cheekily chided with a quirked eyebrow. "Is there anything else?"

_Maybe there was a bit more to it?_

"No, I think you did," Elsa answered with a smile. "Thank you."

_She didn't catch the bait. Oh, well._

"You're welcome. Now let us come back to an important dilemma," Anna said with a roguish smile.

Elsa immediately understood what was going on in her sister's head when she saw her take a quick step forward, her arms wide open. "PLEASE, NO!"

* * *

It had taken Kristoff his first few weeks not to aimlessly meander through the castle anymore whenever he wanted to go anywhere. With a bit of practice and a lot of time spent lost and fumbling through corridors, he finally had gotten to the point where he didn't need a map to find most rooms and alleyways. But now that Greta had told him Garret was in the garden, he couldn't find it.

_Who needs a castle this big?_

He reached a door he didn't recognize. The garden was the only place he hadn't been to regularly, so it had to be it. When he pushed it open, he was greeted by a pale sun and a seemingly empty grass field with a cluster of birches in its center. He lowered his gaze and grinned when he caught sight of Garret splattered like a starfish among the green sea around him.

_There he is._

"There are better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know?" he said in an amused greeting.

Garret seemed slightly startled and brought himself right up before noticing who had entered his temporary temple. "Oh, Kristoff. Sorry, I didn't hear you come in."

The mountain man stepped closer. "Working on your tan?"

"Ha. Unfortunately, it looks like I reflect light more than I absorb it," Garret said with a low chuckle. "Believe it or not, this is the darkest I've ever been."

"Yeah, I could tell. Elsa's the same."

The soldier's eyes widened ever so slightly. "You call her by her name?"

"Yeah. It took some time, but she allows it," Kristoff answered with a shrug as he sat down next to Garret. "It helps that I'm her sister's boyfriend. Anyway, figured you'd like to share a drink, so I brought a little something," he added with non-dissimulated mischief.

He reached inside his shirt and pulled out a bottle of ale and two large tankards. Garret first looked surprised that he could hide such big objects inside so little clothes, but his eyes eventually started to shine.

"Oh, you are a freaking blessing, mate."

_Knew it._

Kristoff threw a knowing smile to his companion. "That long, huh?"

"Well, I've been on the road for some time, so I learned to keep those senses sharp in my head and that money warm in my pocket. Even before that, one of the very few drawbacks of being military is that you can't drink on the job," Garret explained as he lightly grabbed the tankard from Kristoff's hand and steadily waited.

"Did that honestly ever stop you?" Kristoff asked as he poured a bit of the beverage Anna and Elsa would never touch for their lives into Garret's mug.

"Surprisingly, yes. I don't know, maybe you guys out here are rather good-natured about threats of dismemberment, but I like my arms where they are, thank you very much."

Kristoff finished filling his own mug and closed the bottle with a plop. Delicately putting it down at his left, he turned around. "Was it tough? Your job, I mean."

Garret took a few seconds to think before shrugging. "It feels wrong saying it because it was kind of important, but it was. The missions were hard—I had to sleep a full day after most of them. We had to run for hours at a time, most operations were stressful at best, downright terrifying at worst. But hey, at least I got to serve a crown who didn't know I existed," he said, his voice thick with a mix of irony and contempt. He then took a long swig from his tankard, letting a very audible 'Ah!' escape from deep within his chest as soon as it left his lips. "This is good! Reminds me of the good old Pale," he cheerfully commented. "But yeah, the time I spent off-duty or dealing with red-tape was calmer, almost boring in comparison."

"Why did you join? And why'd you stay?"

Garret sighed to the skies while slowly drawing small circles with his tankard. "My old man, mostly. I come from a long line of officers, and he always wanted me to surpass him. It started well, he put in a good word for me, but I couldn't in the end. I was made a knight but it was just standard protocol. I was still a soldier first and foremost."

"Is that so? And what did you do?" Kristoff asked before downing one long sip.

"Whatever they wanted. The brass would call my team for anything special. Recon, escort, asset destruction, asset recovery, or just plain combat missions, though those were rare. Only had one myself."

Kristoff examined Garret's face. Slight twitches here and there, like he was having an allergic reaction to the words coming out of his own mouth. He remembered what Elsa had told him.

_I'd rather not have him pass out on me._

"Wow. Sounds like you had your hands full. Beats being an ice harvester," he said while throwing a glance up to the now much darker and cloudy skies.

"You say that, but I probably would have taken an ice delivery business had the country been a little colder. Unlimited supply is something my competitors would have struggled with," Garret said with a chuckle and another swig.

"Depends on where you do it."

The soldier whirled his head toward him. He looked honestly surprised. "You don't like it?"

"I liked it when I actually harvested ice. Now I'm just…I don't know what I am supposed to be or do honestly," Kristoff explained with a half-hearted shrug.

Both men stayed silent for a minute, the sound of crashing waves lapping with their thoughts as they calmly sipped through their ale.

Garret interrupted the quiet. "You told me you met Anna last year, that right?"

"Yep."

"I guess a lot of things changed between then and now, did they?" he asked.

"They did." Kristoff released a sigh much heavier than he had expected. "Anna is…she's fantastic. I wake up every morning thanking the spirits for having her in my life. She's the woman I never dreamed I could find. But—"

"But everything else is not exactly what you'd have expected," Garret finished.

"Not really."

"So, I'm guessing your parents weren't nobles?"

Kristoff held back a laugh.

_Seriously? When did I give you even the faintest clue that I could be a noble?_

"I-I grew up in an orphanage," he explained instead.

Garret face flushed with evident embarrassment. "I'm—I wouldn't—I didn't know…"

"It's okay," Kristoff comforted with a smile. "To be perfectly honest, I don't even know who they are. I guess they didn't want me…I was told I was just put in front of the porch, with thick furs around me…"

Garret seemed shamefaced for a bit. "Sorry to hear that…"

"Eh, it was alright. I don’t remember much of my time there, but the other kids were nice, the lady whose name I always forget was adorable, I met Sven… I really didn't have that bad a time," Kristoff said with a nostalgic smile. "Then, I was with the trolls."

"The…The trolls."

"Yeah. The rolling, talking, magicking rocks," he explained with some movements of his fingers mimicking the trolls' particular means of transport. "When I was with them, I mostly kept to myself. I didn't really talk to anybody else. But they were great, too."

"Okay."

"And then…Anna. And Elsa. And just like that, all Arendelle knew me. It's a good feeling, don't get me wrong. It's just…I don't know if I'm made to be here," Kristoff said, not looking away from the face he was gazing upon on the liquid surface inside his tankard. He was surprised at himself for voicing out such a heartfelt confession—it was the first time he had said it out loud. Sven knew it all, but Kristoff never had to tell Sven anything—he just _knew._

_Then again, I can't really tell either of the girls._

"To be fair," Garret called, bringing Kristoff's eyes to him. His expression was a lot more serious, but a ghost of a smile still drifted on his lips. "I don't think anyone could be."

"I don't know, G. I mean, Anna may look clumsy and all, but she can tell you the exact order to store the silverware in, how many years it would take to build some commercial relationship with a country based on who's in charge and how many feathers there's in a pillow by pressing a finger on it."

Garret pursed his lips for a second. "Fair," he admitted with an amused nod. "But I got the feeling that last point may just be Anna's personal expertise."

"Maybe," Kristoff replied as he contained a chuckle. "But you see my point. She's Anna Árnadalr. She's the princess of a kingdom. A small kingdom, but still a kingdom. And I'm just…me."

He sat in silence, observing the canopy of heaven at the east. The warm light that showered over the pair from the opposite shore mixed in a strangely harmonious blend with the steely cold atmosphere that started seeping through the air.

Garret put his tankard down on the grass and smacked his knees vigorously. "I know what you need. You need to listen to a story."

"Oh, so now you're patronizing me?" Kristoff asked with a raise of his eyebrows and a cocky grin.

"Just…Just listen," Garret said with feigned exasperation as he lifted his hands. "It's the story of a beautiful and kind princess called Anna—"

"You could have at least pretended to try and changed her name."

"It's reversed so you don't recognize it."

"Of course," Kristoff deadpanned with a smack on his forehead. "What was I thinking?"

"Don't interrupt me or I'll lose my train of thought," the former soldier half-seriously warned. Kristoff picked the bottle up again and started filling the tankards back while Garret continued speaking. "Hum. Beautiful and kind Princess Anna. She goes on to save her sister, falls in love with a man who helped her on the way, and doesn't care where he may have come from. The end." He then proceeded to proudly bow to the waist as much as he could considering his injury.

Kristoff kept his eyebrows raised. "As far as stories go, that was pretty lousy."

"It's _your_ story, I'm not making it up," Garret said as he straightened up and picked his mug off the ground.

"Fair enough."

"Seriously though, mate. Anna doesn't really strike me as the marry-royalty-or-you'll-be-disowned type. It's obvious she cares about you. And as long as you care about her–which I believe is a safe bet–you'll be golden."

Kristoff released a long breath from within. That wasn't really the problem. "I know. I'm just venting."

"With all due respect, that's something you should bring up with her, not with me. I don't suppose you're planning on popping the question anytime soon?"

_Come on, man. I thought we were having a moment here._

Kristoff let his shoulders slump down. "I gave it a thought or two. We're definitely not ready right now."

Garret shrugged. "I'm not going to judge that for you."

"But she's the one," Kristoff affirmed with fiery certitude, his unwavering gaze fixed on the heavens. "That much I can tell."

"Good for you," Garret said with an earnest smile. He solemnly raised his tankard. "To you both."

Kristoff mirrored his gesture. They simultaneously downed whatever remained in their respective containers in a single swig.

"How about you? Anyone special you left home?" Kristoff asked after he wiped his mouth with his wrist.

Garret shook his head. "Nah. I didn't really have time for it."

"So, no girl-in-every-port kinda deal?"

"Nope. I had my fun back when I was still in the army, but nothing worth mentioning. I tend to chill the atmosphere _._ "

Kristoff snorted. "You too? I already have to deal with frost-based jokes on a daily basis."

"Speaking of chill, I know we're in summer and all but it's really not that hot, how are you wearing so little clothes?" Garret said while motioning toward his simple shirt with his hand.

"I'd ask you the same question since you don't have your coat."

"The cold doesn't really bother me. But yeah, I don't even know where it is now that you mention it," Garret pensively answered.

"Anna gave it to the guys at the castle to take it to the storeroom after they cleaned it."

"How did they do that when there's a knife inside?"

Kristoff was perplexed for a second.

"A knife? There wasn't any knife."

Garret's eyes significantly widened. "W-What?" he asked in a small voice.

"There was nothing in it. It was just a coat," Kristoff explained with a shrug.

"You're…You're sure of that?"

Kristoff started to worry. "Yes. Why?"

Garret jumped up to his feet, his expression one of panic. "I need to speak to Jürden."

* * *

Elsa silently observed Garret, Jürden, and Einar discussing. The old counselor had interrupted his meal as soon as he had heard that the newcomer had urgent—and apparently very bad—news.

"What are you saying, son?"

"I'm saying that if they know I'm here, they may react in a completely different way," Garret explained with wide gestures and eyes as large as spoons. "I have some history with that Roger, some history that makes him very resentful towards me; he'd be preparing something big, and–"

"And we just waited for him here…" Jürden concluded as realization dawned on his face.

Garret somberly nodded. "That's right."

"Wait, what does that change for us?" Elsa asked, still confused as to why everyone looked so grim.

"Your Majesty, Garret here is telling us that this went from business to personal for this "Roger". He'll bring out heavy artillery, not for one target, but for two," Einar answered, staring daggers at the foreign soldier whose own eyes were low, fixed on the ground.

 _And that is bad…_ Elsa thought. _I don't understand everything,_ _but the looks upon their faces…_

To bestow such terror on Garret was scary enough as it was. Who was this Roger?

"We have to engage all defenses quickly," Jürden ordered in a steely voice Elsa was hearing for the first time. "Your Majesty, I would like you to seclude yourself in a secure location in this castle as soon as you can. Your guard platoon will remain at your side. Same for Her Highness. Cadet? You're in charge of telling her." A young-looking guard saluted and exited the room to carry out his task.

"Where could I go?" Elsa asked. The castle didn't have a fortified chamber.

"Your room will have to do. Einar, I want you to call back the scouts; we'll need everyone we can get."

"Very well, sir," the captain immediately answered with a sharp nod before darting away.

"And you, Garret…"

The man straightened his back and lifted his head. "I'm at your disposal."

Jürden nodded appreciatively. "How versatile are you?"

"A lot less than usual. I wouldn’t trust my ability to flank. But I can still fight."

"Then you stick with the first platoon you can find. We'll have to be ready for anything."

Elsa's eyes flew between the two men.

_Birds of a feather._

"Please, be careful," she demanded, her hopeful tone slightly shaking.

Jürden nodded. "We really didn't need this, but I'll try, excellency." He then bowed low and left the room in a hurry.

Garret remained however, anxiously staring at the door. "God-freaking-dammit. I should have checked my coat. It was an easy thing to do."

"Garret?" Elsa softly called. He brought his eyes to hers. "It's too late to think about that."

He heaved a heavy sigh. "You're right," he said, but his eyes were telling another story entirely. "Stay safe."

"You too," she answered with a small smile.

At the exact second she pronounced her sentence, a booming explosion echoed from outside, startling the pair and the three guards that had been standing quietly in the room's corner until then.

"What the…?"

"What was that?" Elsa worriedly asked.

Garret's eyes were lifted to the roof. "The cannons. They're targeting the city?! Your Majesty, you have to go now!"

Another distant explosion, like a rifle's cracking sound, was heard again. Different emotions rushed in Elsa's mind, but it wasn't the time to dissect them. "Okay," she said with a feeble nod.

"Let's go, majesty," one of her guards said with his adrenaline-boosted voice. The three surrounded her and prompted her to exit the room, with Garret closely tailing them. They quickly traversed the castle, bumping into Einar once again just a few minutes after he had left.

"Where's Anna?" was Elsa's first reflex.

"She's in her room with Sir Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf. Her guards are with her."

Then came the second priority. "Are the people safe?" she asked.

"The castle is way too hard to hit for them not to target Arendelle proper," Garret said in a serious voice.

"I know," Einar responded. "Jürden already gave the orders to gather all the population inside the castle's ramparts; you don't have to worry about that."

"Thank you," Elsa expressed with unhidden relief.

"Now, majesty! Please get somewhere safe!" he said. He then almost reluctantly turned towards the young man behind Elsa's group. "Garret, with me. We're going to the front door," to which the soldier immediately nodded.

Before Elsa could say anything to Garret however, he had disappeared along with the Captain of the Guard.

The subsequent crossing of her home's red-draped corridors felt strange. Never did she have to walk through them with such a sense of impending danger. The walls around her started to feel smaller, thinner, but at the same time stifling and oppressive. It had been a long time since last she'd thought herself trapped. Dizziness would have been her best guess when asked what she'd say she was feeling.

They reached her room in no time, quickly locking the door behind them. The three guards then stationed at its right, their weapons at the ready, while Elsa simply stood in the middle, biting her nail. Stress was rising little by little, but knowing that Jürden, Einar, and Garret were on top of things made it a bit more bearable.

She turned her gaze to the side. Her balcony was closed, but there was a strange shadow that loomed behind the handcrafted glass panels.

_What is that?_

"Excuse me," she called the guards behind her. "Can you please come with me?" With narrowed eyes, Elsa slowly walked closer. She tried to keep her breath from quickening, but the sound of her heart pumping in her ears made her understand how futile the effort would be. One of the guards extended his hand to the handle while she cocked hers. She channeled some of her magic and waited for him to push as the other two unsheathed their swords. The glass doors flew open, revealing a white silhouette with its arms raised.

"My apologies, majesty," a deep voice said. Elsa then heard four whistles and felt a sting in her shoulder. Bringing her hand up to it in a reflex, she touched the cold end of a needle. Three blunt sounds popped from around her. The guards were now on the ground, motionless.

"Do not fret. They are simply sleeping."

Glancing back ahead, she discerned a man with long dark hair and an eyepatch who looked like he was still wet from a shower. He put his weapon back inside his leather tunic.

Her head was starting to feel heavy. Very heavy. She fell to the ground and tried to call her magic for help. No answer. The eyepatch the man was wearing came closer as he bent down over her. She fought the petrifying terror harder, but the wave was nowhere to be seen.

"Who-Who are you? How did you…?" she asked through the growing vertigo that spiraled in her head.

"I think you already know the answer to the first. As for the second, it is truly unfortunate to see such a beautiful country so outdated. Swords?" He shook his head disapprovingly at the sleeping guards' weapons. "If I can allow myself some advice for the future, you should invest in some firearms. They are far more efficient," he explained, the sound of cannons echoing in the distance. "Well, ' _for the future'_ ," he added with a scoff before standing back up. "Human progress has been extraordinary. Did you know that, with some pieces of equipment—expensive and hard to find equipment, I'll admit—we are able to breathe underwater, just like fish? For a few minutes' worth of time, but still. Cutting edge. It is a marvel how humans use their gifts to transcend their station. We truly have been made in His Image."

Elsa tried to distance herself from the man, in vain. Her arms felt like jelly, her legs were numb. She wanted to scream, to cry for help.

_Anna! Kristoff! Jürden! Garret! Anyone!_

Her vocal cords refused to obey. She could only utter faint moans and saccadic whimpers. Her vision slightly blurred. Tears? Of all things?

"Oh no, dear. The guards were merely tranquilized, but you were injected with a paralytic serum. Another extraordinary product of human engineering, one that will neutralize your petty sorceries. I was told your witchcraft would run wild whatever your state, so I thought it better to get rid of it altogether. Now, I know how rude it is to intrude on a lady's room, so I suggest we get going, shall we?"

Roger picked her up and threw her over his right shoulder. "We have a ceremony to attend."

* * *

Garret tried to get his panting back in check. His back was hurting from the sheer amount of running he had done in the last few minutes.

 _No time to whine, soldier,_ he chastened. _This is happening because you couldn't check your own freaking coat for the single object that could identify you._ _Take it upon your own arse._

He couldn't shake the feeling that he had been _distracted_ since arriving in Arendelle. What was wrong with him?

"That's all of them?" Jürden asked. Another booming sound. This one had been a lot closer.

Einar swept a sweat drop off his cheek while the castle's gates were sealed shut. "That should be it. Everyone's in. But it is weird that not a single cannonball has reached us until now."

"They make a few calibration shots," Garret explained.

"How many do they need?" Jürden asked.

"Depends on how good their gunners are. Worst case? Four or five shots."

"That was the fifth," Jürden gloomily remarked.

"Yes. It was."

"They don't do ' _collateral damage',_ right?" Einar spat.

Something dropped in Garret; his heart sank so low he could feel its weight on his stomach. "I honestly thought… I really don't know what to say."

"We'll talk about this later," Jürden scolded. A sixth shockwave thundered from afar, traveling along the fjord's shore. "All right, everybody! Brace yourselves!" he shouted to the crowd in the castle's main hall.

The Arendellians all flinched. Mothers hugged their children tight, covering their frail bodies with their own. Fathers uselessly lifted their fists to fight the intruder the only way they knew how. Apprehension held for seconds, then a full minute without any indication that the projectiles had landed anywhere on the city. Then another shot was heard, but no impact.

"They still missed?" Einar asked aloud.

Garret furrowed his brows. "It shouldn't be possible. These guys managed to level Her Majesty's castle. They're not _that_ bad. I'd sooner believe they missed on purpose."

"Wait…" Jürden seemed to realize something, judging from his pensive expression. "They missed on purpose…” The old councilor brutally whirled his head toward the back of the gigantic hall. “Where are the guards?"

Following his gaze, Garret noticed three men that looked a bit shorter than the people around them. No Guard uniform to be seen. When he discerned their hairs and eyes, comprehension fell upon him like a hammer on a red-hot anvil.

_They didn't fire anything. They wanted a way inside._

His epiphany came too late, however. Garret saw one of the men was already at his side, a sharpened blade sticking out of his large sleeve, rushing toward his heart. Jürden had seen him too and tried to come to his aid, but he was too far.

Garret moved his arm in the way of the blow. The cold traveled through his limb, enveloping it in a deathly grasp. The plate hardened just in time for the dagger to embed itself in the fortified crystal but no further. Garret twisted his forearm, breaking the steel from the force of the rotation. The mercenary's eyes widened just before Jürden's fist cracked his jaw. The crowd's panicked cries filled the hall. Men, women, and children all fled to the edges of the room, leaving a large circle in its center where the other mercenaries stood. Half-a-dozen of Arendelle's guards were on the ground, motionless.

"Are you okay, son?" Jürden said while catching his breath. He didn't wait for an answer. "That was a close one," he added while motioning towards Garret's armored arm where the acute tip of the dagger was still lodged. "I heard of your abilities but it's something else in person."

"I…" Once again, Garret didn't find the words. He resisted the urge to throw up before dissolving the ice when the mercenaries attacked again.

_Never again._

Not on himself anyway.

The first one came for him from the left, while another took the opposite side and the last jumped on Jürden. Garret conjured a spear in a flash, clear and transparent as it could never have been before. He wasn't very good when he had to take it close and personal, but his arrows could hit the civilians in confined spaces like this one.

The spear took the first assailant by surprise when its blunt end hit the side of his face, sending him comatose to the ground. Garret twisted and dodged, just in time to avoid the dagger slashing towards him, then twirled his spear over his head. Before the ice blade met its target, a pang of electricity surged through his back. Garret gritted his teeth, bending over from the pain, and the spear went wide, clanging against the ground. He saw a glint of steel as the dagger lunged forward.

_Endure._

He closed his eyes and prepared himself. The dagger didn't come.

_No pain? Why is there no pain?_

Garret opened his eyes and looked down. Jürden was beneath him, his sword's edge crossing the dagger's. His former opponent was in Einar's hold, gasping for air before limply falling. With a quick flick of his pommel, the councilor ejected the weapon from its owner's hand, leaving enough space for Garret to smash him with a closed knuckle to the liver. The man heaved, his breath cut short. Einar closed in and struck with all his might, his foot flying to his face. The man fell to the ground unconscious while Garret kneeled and clutched his left side. The spear evaporated into thick mist.

"Thanks," he managed to mutter.

"Those were for you," Einar said. "They must have sent others for her."

"That's right. We have to move. Can you, Garret?" Jürden asked.

_I'm going to feel this tomorrow. Not in a good way._

"Yes. I'm right behind you."

"If there's one place they can escape through, it's the old supplies' port," Einar stated.

The trio ran as fast as they could, stopping a few seconds to check that the fallen guards on their way were still breathing. They crossed the garden Garret now knew very well and passed through a discreet door that led to the hidden access to the fjord. The place where Garret had first spoken to Elsa about their magic.

And there she was, just before the water, on the ground, at Roger's feet. The latter's face beamed with a large smile as soon as he saw them arrive. Next to him was a large man who had to have been his second-in-command Jack, a short bald one with a monocle, and two other goons.

"Hello, old friend! It has been too long!" Roger greeted. "I was going to complain that those idiots couldn't take you on, but I'd rather take care of you myself. Don't worry about her, she's still alive. She can even hear you!"

Garret remained silent, trying to think of a way to secure Elsa without putting her in danger. The water was deep, the walls were high. How did Roger expect to escape?

"Now I know what you're telling yourself," the witch-hunter said. " _How will he escape_? But here's the idea: I must say I quite like this castle. My remaining men are on the road to occupy the premises as we speak. I promise to give it back to these brave but misguided people as soon as we bring them into the Lord's fold. Unfortunately, this country needs to know what it is to fear witchcraft."

"Release the queen this instant!" Einar shouted.

Roger clicked his tongue a few times. "Not so fast. I have important things to discuss here."

The little man at his side was fidgeting with anticipation. "What are you waiting for? Kill her!"

Roger pointed a finger toward him, calm wrath evident in his eyes. "You shut up."

Garret took a step forward. "Release her and take me instead. She has nothing to do with us."

Roger laughed a dry laugh. "Oh no, you misunderstand. I don't have to choose here. Burning _her_ is business. It is the work of the Lord. One that requires more ceremony. Burning _you_ is payback. And I believe there is a far simpler remedy for that."

"Then prepare to fight for it," Jürden warned while unsheathing his sword.

"Oh, can I have a moment with my old pal here? I terribly missed him."

Garret advanced further. "This isn't really the time for some convoluted humor."

"Again, you misunderstand," Roger said with a knowing grin. "I missed you last time…" He pulled a twin-cannon cap pistol and aimed. "…this time I won't."

Garret couldn’t react fast enough to feel surprised. He wasn’t fast enough to feel anything.

At the exact moment Roger brought his finger to pull the trigger, a heavy book landed on his head with a resonating thud. The blast went to the side and the pellets dug deep within the castle's walls, banging behind him with a gulf of fire. Garret's eyes darted to whence the book's projected trajectory originated. Anna was on her balcony, her eyes blazing and teeth bared. She was boiling with untamed anger.

"Get the _hell_ away from my sister!" she roared. She then disappeared, surely to come give the intruders a taste of her fists.

_Good aim, Anna!_

Taking the opportunity offered by the princess, Einar and Jürden dashed and tackled the mercenaries standing next to Roger, taking them by surprise and forcing them to the ground.

Reacting as fast as his body allowed, Garret took advantage of Roger's momentary inattention and darted forward, lightly touching his boots and hands on the way to create heavy blocks of ice linking his extremities together. The witch-hunter fell to the ground and dropped his firearm with a grunt.

"Take her and go!" Jürden shouted.

_No need to tell me twice._

If the castle was to be occupied, it obviously wasn't going to be safe anymore. He had to get her as far from it as possible before assessing the situation.

Garret quickly approached Elsa's still body and picked her up in his arms as gently as he could. "Sorry, I know that makes you uncomfortable," he apologized with a smile. Her eyes were teary, scanning his face intensively.

_She's paralyzed._

Ignoring the feeling of guilt that crossed his mind, Garret took a long breath while fixing with a determined gaze the opposite bank of the fjord. Praying that he wasn't wrong about his own newfound capabilities, he nonetheless had to run, run for his life, run for Elsa's life.

When his feet met the water, he felt the ice beneath them. Hard, sturdy and strong. _His_ ice. Not taking the time to rejoice, he pressed onward and made sure to disintegrate every single frozen platform as soon as he left it. The blast of a pistol reached his ear from the shore. He instinctively flinched but didn't feel any pain.

"NO!" he heard Roger shout.

Despite the voice inside telling him otherwise, Garret gave a quick peek behind him as he fled. His blood ran cold.

The small man with the monocle was standing with his arms outstretched. The smoke from the still-hot barrel slowly elevated into the blue sky. At his feet, one lying silhouette with a pool of red starting to form at its side.

Jürden.

"Run!" he cried with a heavy wince. The bullets had hit an artery judging from the amount of blood that was gushing out. His life was in danger.

Garret faced forward again, his heart heavy.

The first thing he did when he reached the opposite shore was to jump behind the first tree while he commanded the ice to create a makeshift shield in front of the queen. He didn't risk another look back; a bullet could still reach them at that distance.

A few distant shouts emerged from the forest in Arendelle's direction. A hunting party.

"We'll get you out of here, majesty. I swear it," he softly said to the paralyzed woman in his arms.

He was not going to waste what Jürden had done for Elsa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope you enjoyed this one! Thanks Grand-Paladin for reviewing this chapter!
> 
> I released this chapter a bit earlier because I wouldn't have been able to tomorrow.
> 
> If you're interested in Dragon Age works - you never know haha - check out my Ce qui se passe à Valence fic! It is in English, don't worry!
> 
> Nothing worth expanding on here, I just hope everyone stays safe during these weird and trying times! If you're in an epidemic center, please stay home as long as you can!
> 
> Next chapter's theme is A King's Ransom 3 by Johannes Bornlöf, on YouTube too.
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	12. Witch-Hunt

Garret ran as quietly and quickly as he could. The hunters were still behind. He could hear their shouts, but not their steps nor their breaths. Good sign. For now. The forest was thick, but his footprints remained. He had to go North, where there was still a bit of snow. He could easily get rid of his trail there.

The mix of familiar feelings intertwined in messy chaos with novel sensations: The frantic thumping in his chest, unstoppable and interminable, that almost made him jump with each pulse. His rapid but controlled breaths, pushing air with great force in and out of his lungs. The feeling of the wind whistling against his ears, as cold and violent as his memories. The taste of blood in his mouth, sour and rancid and so very recognizable. Pain in his lower back, new but no less acute. The tiredness in his left leg, heavy like it never had been before. The frail and soft woman in his arms, slightly shook with each of his steps through the forest.

If it wasn't for the shiny teardrops in the corner of her eyes, one would guess she was completely unmoved by the circumstances. However, Garret was sure that if she hadn't been already paralyzed by the serum, she'd have been by fear. This was a queen. And as strong as her magic was, she was no warrior. He didn’t relish the sentiment, but he was happy she was sedated. He didn't want to deal with a potentially anxious-to-death Elsa on top of the witch-hunters after both their butts.

He lightly adjusted his grip on her shoulders, her ice dress flowing behind him.

_Out of here first. We'll figure out what to do later._

He passed through a clearing and behind a tree. He leaned against the trunk, caught his breath, took some time to assess where he was.

Garret always liked to think that he could analyze a situation in a rational way. What he understood at that moment was clear: he was too slow. Elsa was lighter than he expected, but she wasn't weightless, and he was in poor condition himself. He could only keep running for so long, and judging by his last trip through here, the North Mountain was still at least an hour away.

He had to find something else, and he had to find it quickly.

As he rummaged through his head, he suddenly realized the shouts had died down. In fact, he heard nothing at all. Not a squirrel, not a bird, not even a bug. Not a good sign. Like his father had taught him years before, woods this quiet meant one thing: a predator was around.

A pack of wolves was a possibility in these regions, or maybe the hunters had shifted tactics. If he absolutely had to choose, Garret was sincerely hoping it would be the former, but he didn't plan to stick around enough to find out.

He pressed on, the framework of a plan taking shape in his mind. The land sloped uphill, and he distinctly remembered the plain that laid before the North Mountain being a bit below the tree line. If he could reach a vantage point, he would be able to go a lot more quickly—but a lot more painfully.

He started running once again, the woods around him as soundless as death. His own steps weren't usually noisy—he was rather light-footed by nature—but they now detonated among the tree barks around, blasting with each of his left leg's contact with the ground. He didn't have much control over that. He narrowed his eyes and concentrated on his path ahead when he heard a whimper.

He focused on the input and kept a sharp ear out. He brought his gaze down to the still woman he had been carrying up until then, from whom the little cries seemed to emanate.

"Garr…et…"

Elsa's eyes were locked on his face with newfound vigor. She was trying hard to make her words intelligible despite her breathless mouthing. "Ca…stle. A…nna."

His face fell harder than it ever did.

_Even like this, she's worried about them first._

"We cannot go back now," he said as quietly as his panting allowed. "They're not in danger for now, but you are."

His heart clenched when the image of Jürden bleeding out on the shore flashed before him.

The trail of tears on Elsa's cheeks barely had time to dry before more fell down as she slightly choked up—or she seemed to, Garret couldn't exactly tell. "Pl…ease."

"I really can't take you back," he reluctantly admitted while resuming his hurried steps. There wasn't something he wouldn't have done to allow it, but it was simply far too dangerous. Most of Arendelle's guards were incapacitated and Roger's probably had at least two dozen more men judging from the attack. He already couldn't shake the three or four goons after them; several trained hunters would kill them both.

As soon as he finished the thought, he heard a small crack echo from his right. Someone had stepped on a twig, and it hadn't been him.

"Shit."

He dashed to the left as a dart whistled right where his neck had been. The projectile struck the tree behind him and vibrated with a buzz for a short time. Green liquid drizzled down the trunk from the tip and mixed with the sap that was forced out of the bark by the impact.

_Curare darts._

But not ones for humans. These were strong enough to knock out a bull if their size was anything to go by. The hunters were given the orders to capture if possible but kill if necessary. At least for him.

The howl of wind reached his ears from his back. Garret focused and ice crackled and formed into a frozen weight under his right heel. With an incredible effort, he lifted his foot and pivoted. The hunter appeared exactly where Garret had guessed he would. The attacker's eyes widened as he fumbled too late to slow his momentum. His head smashed into the ice block and he fell to the ground head-first.

For the first time in a good while, Garret thanked his years in the army and the several months he had spent on the run—he wouldn't have perceived the faint footsteps otherwise.

He swept the area with his eyes and saw an opening that led to a cliff, steep and deep to deter his pursuers but not big enough for them both to die on the slide—that would be a bit funny to explain in the afterlife.

He knew the other hunters were still very much around and ready to strike. Garret couldn't see them, but he heard their boots dragging along the muddy soil from all sides. A classic triangle choke formation. Garret shook his head, the pain spreading and flaring across his entire body. He couldn't win. Not with Elsa in his arms and his injury in his back. Unless…

 _No!_ he thought as anger began to burn within him at the simple thought of using it. _Never again._

His vitality renewed by his own fury, Garret ducked as two more darts swerved past him. He drove his legs forward, dashing away as fast as he could. For a moment, he forgot the pain and fear—they were replaced by an incredible sense of clarity. The one that filled his spirit whenever he knew something would work.

Elsa's breathing synced with every single one of his actions. She held her breath whenever he was airborne, she panted whenever he was running, she let out a small yelp each time something shook Garret's body. Somehow, the idea that she depended on him for everything made him try harder.

"You're not dying today. Not on my watch," he murmured, though it felt a lot like he was telling that to himself.

He dodged the trees as he went, side-stepping one, then two, then a dozen, before he noticed a henchman rapidly closing in. Something slammed at his side and he contained a cry of hurt. Garret pushed off the ground, jumping forward and narrowly avoiding the blade that slashed through the air behind him. He kicked the weight that was still attached to his foot away and landed on his back, once again muffling a pained growl, while the frozen block smashed into the hunters' knee and made him lose his balance as he tripped to the ground.

Garret strained himself up and resumed running, finally reaching the cliff and peering over the edge. Now that he was closer, the sinkhole did look a lot deeper and the slide a lot longer.

_Come on, soldier. Everything went just fine last time, did it?_

He conjured a frozen disc in front of him and winced when lucidity dissipated his thin delusive hopes—everything did definitely _not_ go just fine last time.

Three different pairs of footsteps were barreling toward him. Toward _Elsa_.

Not having the time to convince himself that he didn't have a choice, Garret took two sharp breaths, coated most of his body with a thin sheet of crystal ice, held Elsa's body tighter against him and jumped.

The landing took his breath away in all the wrong senses. The surface was harder, the rocks sharper, and his velocity much bigger than he had expected. He gritted his teeth a bit more with every stutter and bump on the way, feeling them rattling his entire body, magnified through the lens of hurt despite the protective membrane. The descent was lasting a lot more than expected. He tried to keep Elsa as far up as he could while still avoiding the trees that popped up before his eyes. They dodged a final one before the ground began to level and they gradually slowed. Garret conjured his spear and planted it down to halt.

Garret gasped in pain. The fire in his lower back was now engulfing his entire torso, eating away at his flesh like relentless claws tearing through. He released the spear, letting it dissolve while breathing heavily.

 _Maybe it didn't work as well as intended_ , he thought as the feeling of searing daggers ripped through his backside. The large wound near his kidney now had a few friends, it seemed.

He glanced uphill. The now small and distant silhouettes of the hunters were on the edge of the cliff, visibly hesitating to follow. They eventually disappeared back into the forest.

Garret strained immensely to bring his torso up, but he found out as soon as he tried to stand upright that his legs and his lumbar muscles were trembling hard. Judging from the burning sensation that pulsed through every single nerve within them, they didn't have the strength to lift him. He pushed harder, involuntarily sending a shout of helplessness, to no avail.

Throwing a look at his surroundings as quickly as his tired neck allowed, he discerned the clear shape of a wooden roof a few hundred yards away, just after a small stream that peacefully ran its course amidst the woods.

"Garret…"

Elsa's voice was starting to return. It was still faint, but her words were no longer intangible; the serum's effect lasted a few hours at most, and its effects were apparently already starting to wane. He glanced down toward her. Her eyes were still on him, but this time he could clearly see worry among the sea of navy-blue. "You're…hurt."

"I'm okay," he lied through his teeth. The fact that he couldn't stand up was proof enough that he wasn't, but he still thought that maintaining a façade would help her keep calm.

Her gaze did not waver. "No… You're…hurt." Her fingers were trembling as if struggling to reach out.

He didn't let her try further: he had to step into that cabin. It wasn't safe and was probably the first place their pursuers would look, but he needed to rest, and it would be some time for the hunters to cut through the forest.

 _Come on! This is no place to take a breather,_ he thought, as if talking to his own body.

He summoned his deepest strengths, clenching his abs as hard as he could to force his torso upwards. Groaning in discomfort, he managed to sit correctly and bring his legs under him to stand up.

He lightly swayed as he walked, suppressing a wince with each step and purposefully avoiding Elsa's stare that was very certainly still drilling at his face.

The small cabin turned out to be a full-fledged store that seemed unoccupied. He could descry a few barrels and empty shelves through the window covered with a mixture of dirt, twigs and faded petals. Garret stopped a few feet away from the entrance to read the half-panel hammered to the roof with a curious eye. Someone had taken the name off.

"Wandering trade post?" he deciphered aloud, piecing together the missing letters.

_Not very wandering, is it? Unless you fancy earthquakes…_

He pushed the door open with his shoulder, making his way to an empty room covered in wooden planks and settling dust from the ground up.

_One window, no back doors. We can stay here for a bit._

He gently placed Elsa's immobilized body against the wooden wall and sat on her right, his breath still short and jerky. He kept an ear and an eye out for the tiniest commotion on the outside but relaxed his shoulders.

His back was still burning, but he couldn't take care of that. He fought the fangs of obscurity that came tugging at his consciousness, trying to knock him out. He could power through the pain; he knew he could. He'd done that for three years now.

Seeing Roger again hadn't had that terrifying effect he had feared it would have on him. Everything had been on his mind so much for so much time, he didn't need the witch-hunter in front of him to remind him of what was his burden to shoulder. He silenced the echo of her screams and focused on where he was. The slight creaking of the wooden floor under his weight. The texture of his pants, where his hand was resting. The sound of Elsa's breathing, soft and soothing.

He closed his eyes for an instant. When he opened them again, what seemed to be a simple blink for him had apparently lasted much longer. The light that shone through the window was now reddish, the dusty glass dividing it into thousands of fine threads that cast the shadows of the surrounding summer leaves on the wall in front of him.

"Garret. Garret," Elsa called.

Her voice was now almost at its normal level, although she was clearly trying to keep it down to a whisper. He felt her small hand on his shoulder, softly squeezing him so that he did not sink a second time into the twists and turns of his own unconscious. He guessed the touch barrier had already been broken; she didn't have as much trouble with it as earlier that day. Also, threats of death.

He leveled tired eyes at her. She was now able to move, it appeared. Her legs were still frozen in place, but she had been able to turn her head in his direction.

"Stay with me, please," she asked, and only then did he notice the slight tremor in her timbre.

"I'm here," he said, surprised at how coarse he sounded. "I drifted out for a minute."

"That was a bit more than a minute," she corrected, though he did not hear the tinge of reproach he had expected. He could swear he heard concern and... relief.

He shuffled where he sat, straightening his position against the wall. "I guess the only thing I can do in front of you is pass out," he said with a fake laugh.

"That's not true," she half scolded. "You did a lot more behind and in front of me than you give yourself credit for."

He let out a chuckle at her solemn tone that felt good considering the circumstances. How she didn't catch any of the innuendos that she let out now and then was probably one of the most endearing things about the woman. He got a more precise look at her, studying her for any eventual injuries. He didn't find any on her pale skin, but she had cried again only a few moments prior if he was to trust the still fresh tears on her cheeks. He almost apologized but changed his mind at the last moment. Instead, he tried to anticipate her reaction and explain what he thought was the best course of action.

"I know you want to go back to Arendelle," he began, directly getting to the elephant in the room. "I know how hard it must be for you not to go to Anna and everyone else right now. But in our states, returning would be suic—"

"I know," Elsa interrupted with a determined glint. "I understand."

Garret didn't bother to hide his surprise on his face. He let his jaw drop for a moment before continuing. "You do?"

"Yes. We cannot go back now."

"All right, then."

"We can rest a little and go right after. Right?"

_Oh. That's not…_

"Not really _._ We won't be able to go back for a while. At least a few days. Maybe weeks."

It was her turn to look surprised. "What do you mean? Why?"

"Because we're who they want. We have to get you to a safe place first. The others are not in immediate danger."

Elsa looked like he had just suggested burning the entire country down. "I'm afraid that is not happening."

"What would you say is going to happen, then?" he asked, his voice a bit more irritated.

"We are going back and freeing my people and my family as soon as I get my magic back!" Elsa asserted with vigor, her face shining with the sun's crimson tint that crept into the room. "Though I still cannot feel anything in my legs even if I try to move them… How long is this supposed to last?"

Garret frowned. "A few hours in total for your body, can't say for your powers. He must have underdosed this one since you're light, but I've never been hit with it myself." He came back to the important subject immediately after. "Your Majesty. They want to _burn_ you. And trust me, they _will_ if they find you. You saw how easily they cut through the castle's defenses. Even with your magic, I'm not sure we would be able to bypass them. They have defensive terrain, and they know me well enough to plan accordingly. Now isn't the time for heroics."

She mirrored his scowl, imperceptibly leaning away and taking her hand off his shoulder. "I'm not trying to be a hero! I am doing my duty as queen! Arendelle is under my protection!"

"Your protection won't mean much to them if you're a corpse!" He sensed that his voice had risen up in volume almost unwillingly.

"And because of that, I should just flee and leave them to figure out how to deal with these foreigners?!"

"It's because, if you don't, those foreigners will happily fight among themselves for the killing blow!"

"They have my family!"

"They won't do anything to them!"

"They hit Jürden!" Elsa burst out, letting her voice carry both anger and sorrow. Garret immediately backed down slightly as the little beads in the corner of her eyes reappeared. "I saw him, on the ground…" she continued with a hiccup, her gaze dropping to the parquet under her. "I can't let that happen to anyone else. Never again."

They stayed silent for a moment, their breaths short. Garret brainstormed _something_ to say, anything _,_ but couldn't bring himself to open his mouth.

Elsa eventually blinked back her tears and adorned the serious face that didn't look quite natural on her. Garret found himself missing that perfect smile of hers already. "Even if my powers are not enough, wouldn't yours help? Can you not summon armor?"

His heart sank in disbelief before he remembered that he had let her into his own memories. She must have seen it there.

"I…I can't," he simply answered.

"You can't?"

"No."

Again, curt and quick. He didn't want to dwell on the matter.

"You were able to when you were still a soldier!"

Her voice wasn't the same: she was giving him orders disguised as questions. Just like his father did. But her tone was more pleading than commanding.

"That was a long time ago."

"Even with my aid?"

"Please, don't insi—"

"It would help us tremendously!"

"I'm not using it."

"It's our best bet for now!"

"My mother died because of the damned thing!" Garret involuntarily snapped. He didn't like his voice whenever he was angry; there was a bitterness in his outbursts that shocked him every time—and evidently Elsa too, since she had drawn back wide-eyed. There was one advantage, however—it helped focus his anger. There was comfort in it, cold authority that called him back to days long gone. "I'm not using it," he added softly, gradually calming down.

He settled back in his place and cursed at his slip up. It was too late to pretend it didn't happen though. They returned to a heavy silence, letting their strife evaporate in the tense atmosphere that reigned.

"I…I apologize," Elsa started a minute later as her stare turned a lot less abrasive. "I didn't want to… To press you for anything hurtful."

Again, the pair stayed silent, both quietly watching the opposite wall like a painting in a gallery.

The robins outside were still chirping happily, but their careless insouciance—whose absence would have served as a warning signal to Garret—would only last for an hour or two before they got back to their nest.

"This isn't really the time to get upset with each other," Garret said. "We're far from being out of danger."

"I-I also didn't wish to imply you had to come," Elsa said, visibly trying to hide both her disappointment and her helplessness. "You already have been an incredible help and it wouldn't be fair of me to ask you to accompany me."

Garret's eyes widened. "You–You'd go without me?"

"Of course, if I have to."

"You're not scared?" he asked incredulously. He wasn't really listening to his own voice; his question had come out on its own. He concentrated on her hands, now joined on her lap; shaking, as expected.

Elsa's features slightly softened and she lifted her navy eyes to his. "I… I am, truthfully. I am terrified. Beyond anything I could have ever felt. But the people out there— _my_ people—are hostages to that man," she replied. "I just cannot flee. I will fight for them. Always."

_She's planning to go alone against Pete-knows how many armed men, potentially without her powers. How could she not be scared?_

Garret scanned her face intently. Her eyes were burning blue, flashing with a light from within that grew like the sun's early rays. He could discern a mixture of terror and resolve in them, yet these weren't the eyes of a soldier. Just a young woman that couldn't bear to know her family in danger for a single second. With deep breaths, he released all the tension that had built up inside him like London's steams.

Of the two, Anna was clearly the hothead, the one he'd naturally associate with unadulterated courage—he easily pictured her brandishing her weapon in revolt and jumping to the heart of the fight without a second thought. But Elsa, he had come to learn, would have that second thought, then a third, then a fiftieth, and with each of them fear would creep up more and more, seeping into every potential movement she'd envisioned. It only added to the great respect that he started sensing within himself for her when crossing her shaken but strong-willed gaze. Bravery wasn't the absence of fear: it was the force of the conviction one had to overlook it.

_She's something else._

"I apologize too, for… you know. Shouting. It was a dumb move on my part. I got a little worked up because of everything that's happened. They are… He wouldn't have wanted…" he left his sentence hanging in the air. He didn't have to add to the dread she was certainly already feeling by reminding her of Jürden. "Still," he started again. "I maintain that going alone and immediately would only make you the easiest target they've ever had. Is there any actual chance I can talk you out of it?"

"I do not share many traits with my sister, but we are both very stubborn."

Garret had readied a reply that he immediately forgot when he noticed the perfect silence that reigned outside. He yanked a hand up to let Elsa understand that something was off, before bringing his index finger to his lips. She immediately complied by sealing her eyes shut and swelling her cheeks after taking a long breath. In any other context, it would have been the absolute cutest display Garret had ever witnessed—he even allowed the phantom of a smile to graze the corner of his lips—but he had other concerns on his mind.

He stood to the window, scanning the zone around the shack. No sign of anyone. But the sun was still over the horizon, the birds wouldn't have left so early. He hastily got back to Elsa's side.

"I'll have to go out for a minute to check it out. Don't move till I come back, all right?" Elsa threw a curious glance his way, then to her legs. He understood a bit too late that his remark was slightly, somewhat, definitely inconsiderate. "Sorry," he winced.

"It's alright. I think I'm starting to sense them again."

She wiggled her feet a little to prove her point.

"Good."

Elsa then watched him as he headed outside, quietly opening the door and quickly checking his immediate environment.

"Be–" she started in a whisper. He closed the door, having not heard her. "–careful."

* * *

Elsa sat quietly, awaiting his return.

She brought her arms around herself, the sound of creaking planks and wind blowing between them her only company. Her left hand lifted almost unconsciously, letting her gaze linger upon it. The way it had naturally come to his shoulder when she thought that he hadn't been there anymore now surprised her. Even more surprising was how it didn't burn her this time. With everyone else, the heat would become a bother at some point—only Anna would have the privilege of extended contact. Not this time. For once, she didn't fear to ice the person she touched to death.

_His magic, surely._

A minute passed, then two, then five, then ten.

She was growing restless, not taking her eyes off the door. Her thoughts zigzagged between Garret and Arendelle, each not settling her nerves in the slightest. She pictured Anna and Kristoff, trembling in fear inside their room, wondering where she was. She saw Kai, Gerda, Oaken, Greta and everyone else in the main square, kneeling just under the statue of her grandfather, their protests silenced by blades of sharp steel. Her heart broke when she recalled Jürden's shocked and strained expression as he laid on the ground. Her hand clenched into a fist.

She _had_ to come back.

The sound of the door opening startled her, and she reflexively called for her ice, only to remember that it wasn't there, and wouldn't be for a little while. Fortunately for her, the one intruding on her solitude was Garret.

He didn't let her utter a single word.

"They're coming. The four from earlier," he said simply. "We have to get out of here." His eyes were focused, not unlike the day her ice castle had been leveled off the side of the North Mountain. "Can you walk?"

She tried moving her legs. They were answering, but they were still numb. "I can probably stand, but I wouldn't bet on my ability to run."

He surprised her by flashing a small relieved smile. "That's good enough." He then proceeded to lift her in his arms as he had done during their flight, eliciting a small yelp, her face flushing with that strange heat once again. She repressed the urge to throw herself out of his grasp in time. "Oh, maybe I should have warned…" he apologetically said, his brows slightly arched in honest worry.

"It–It's okay," she said, her face burning. She didn’t fear contact but this was still unsettling.

They exited the shack in a hurry and delved into the silent forest before coming to a halt near a large oak whose width exceeded her shoulders'. The soldier gently let her down on her feet and against its bark, giving quick peeks right and left every other second.

"To keep things short and sweet, we can take them out if we work at it together," he whispered. Elsa shakily nodded in understanding, waiting for his instructions. "For that, we're sort of setting a trap. I'm going to be the bait—"

_Wait, what?_

"You're the bait?! You're the competent one here! I should be the bait!" Elsa murmured back a bit more angrily than she intended.

He lifted his eyebrows in dumbfounded confusion, looking at her strangely for a few seconds. "Can you dodge crossbow bolts?" he asked.

The question had come out of nowhere. Elsa wanted to say she could, but the situation demanded that she be honest with him and herself. She quickly dismissed the thought. "N-No, I can't…"

"Can you fight an armed mercenary alone in the almost-dark? Without your powers?"

"Not really…"

"Can you run?"

"No…"

Garret took a step forward, his green gaze pouring into her with the intensity of the pole star. "Can Arendelle—and Anna—afford to lose you?"

She shook her head.

"Then, I'm the bait."

She pursed her lips, knowing that he wasn't going to budge on that particular matter. It didn't diminish the slight hurt that last sentence had brought up. "Okay, okay. I understand. But that point wasn't very fair."

Garret looked sheepish for a moment or two. "It wasn't the most tactful, I'll give you that. But war isn't fair," he finally said as he continued to throw glances to the side. "Here's what we're going to do. The strongest weapon is Lady Patience, so we're going to use her. Since you can't really move, you're going to stay here." He then concentrated, clasping his hands as light emerged between them. While they slowly separated, the shape of an elongated block of ice appeared in front of her, larger on one side than the other: an ice cudgel, which he handed to her as soon as it was finished. "There. You can use that."

She examined the weapon, wide-eyed. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"I can take care of two of them alone, but the two others would then converge on me at the same time and I'd be overrun. If I send them here instead and you take them out, we'd be free for a bit."

Elsa's mind had trouble processing what he was asking of her. "Me? Take—Take them out? Like a brutish thug?"

Garret opened his mouth. "Exactly," he said with a nod and a shrug after a few seconds in thought. "But don't worry about it, the club's light. It won't kill them, just knock them out cold. And I'll try to time the hits for you. I chose this tree because it's recognizable; I'll keep an eye on it. I'll throw an arrow right here to 'guide' them; they hunt in pairs, so that'll bring the first two at your right, and you can strike as soon as you hear me whistle. The whistles will give the other two my location, but I should be able to handle them. Is everything clear?"

Elsa blinked at the sheer amount of information he had just dumped on her, but she nonetheless had grasped the intricacies of his plan. It was a good plan.

 _If I manage to do my part,_ she thought as her gaze traveled up the club's crystal-clear structure.

As if answering her doubts, Garret put a hand on the shaft, bringing her eyes to his once again. He had surely noticed how her entire body had started shaking. "I know you can do this," he said. "You're stronger than you think you are."

"I am?" she asked weakly.

He just gave a sharp nod, and that simple gesture slightly reinvigorated her. The shaking didn't stop, but she didn't dread what was coming as much. He didn't see her as the dead weight she probably was.

"I'll—I'll try."

"That's all I need. And just so you don't freak out too much, these guys look like they're a bit slow on the uptake. They're–"

"–trained but not very bright?" she finished with a small smile.

He gave her a quick grin of his own in response.

A faint rustle that even she could hear suddenly drew Garret's attention behind the tree. He checked on her, giving her a thumbs-up to silently ask one last time if she was ready. Sensing that she didn't have much choice, she nodded in turn, and he disappeared almost immediately amidst the growing obscurity with a shimmer of the air.

She closed her eyes, anxiously watching out for any sound around her. The atmosphere hung heavily, its weight reinforced by the complete silence enveloping the woods. She was anticipating a whistle; she heard a thump at her feet that made her jump and suppress a little cry that came dangerously close to escaping past her lips. She half-opened her eyelids to see one of Garret's frozen arrows planted into the very ground.

An instant later, the whistle echoed, banging against her eardrums like a war horn. She didn't think twice before slamming the cudgel at her right with all her might, feeling it impact with a crash against _something._ The hit's vibration shook her arm with its force, sending a shockwave across her entire body. A loud thud followed, as well as a surprised gasp that wasn't hers.

"Connor!"

An unknown voice. Another long whistle. Another slam. Another crash. Another thud.

Panting from the adrenaline that was pulsing through her limbs, she finally dared to open her eyes fully, and was greeted by two unconscious bodies lying on top of each other. Wearing fur coats that seemed too hot and too heavy for the season, she noticed the same seal that had allowed her to identify Hopkin's Blessed a week ago. The hand, the birthmark, the golden color; everything was the same, except for the missing motto.

A shout from a very known voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Garret!" she exclaimed. He wasn't far, and he needed help. She spun, seeking the cry, dizzying herself, hoping to glimpse him between distant trees.

She tried lifting her foot off the ground, and it surprisingly answered. The other followed, then the first again, and soon enough she was running toward where the scream had come from.

She meandered aimlessly for a little while, sensing the vein in her neck throbbing as she nervously scanned every single tree. For the longest time, her own wheezing crushed every other sound, but slowly, ever so slowly, she allowed other noises to break through. There was a stream away at her right and crows in the trees, their wings cracking the air as they took flight.

Elsa neared a small clearing, and as she was about to pass the last tree, one of the hunters popped out from behind it with his crossbow armed opposite from her, looking as surprised as she was. With a scream of stupor, Elsa raised her ice club and swung, driving it to the side of his face. The man staggered under the blow. She heard another commotion ring through the blood's roaring in her ears, but she didn't stop to question it. Elsa struck again as fast as her arms allowed, only for her to meet air as she got carried away by her momentum.

The hunter had fallen limply to the ground, a small ice shard sticking out from the back of his shoulder and a heavier looking mace planted in the grass below. Behind him, Garret was on the ground as well with his arm outstretched, mist escaping from the tips of his fingers and the side of his face as small frozen blocks hissed away. At his right was another mercenary, face down on the mud. The soldier was gasping heavily for air, clutching his left side with a clear wince.

"My—My bad. You _can_ run. And I—I couldn't really...handle two of them."

"Garret!" Elsa called with worry, her heart racing inside her chest. She let the ice club plunge to the ground and hurried at his side, kneeling on the humid soil. "Are you okay?"

"I'm tempted to—to say yes… But I wouldn't look…very convincing, would I?" he joked with a strained voice as he brought his torso up. "They weren't complete idiots. They saw pretty much instantly where my weak point was. And I think the bandages behind loosened up a bit…"

Elsa immediately went to his back and slowly lifted his shirt. He began to object but settled down when she threw him a harsh glare. She shifted her glance back to the injury.

The bandages were indeed undone, but the gigantic gash that ran across the bottom of his back seemed unharmed—the scar had not reopened at the very least.

She was expecting a few other notches—there were bound to be more bruises from the slide through the rocks and sharp pebbles from earlier alone.

What she didn't expect were all the scars tracing through his back. Long, short, discreet, profound. Some were new, others were old and faded; there were at least twenty of them. She gulped.

"I'm going to… I'm going to tighten it back," Elsa said.

"We better get out of here first. They're down for now, and we have to take this opportunity to create as much distance with them as possible."

He then tried to stand up, a vein appearing in his neck from the effort. Elsa let his shirt fall back and hastily stepped to his side and gave him the support he needed to get back on his feet.

"Thanks," he muttered with a grateful smile.

"You-You're welcome," she replied with her gaze down while he lightly created icy shackles around their aggressors' extremities.

Then, the pair scurried out of the clearing, stepping over the unconscious bodies, and walked. They walked for a long time. Without a single word. The obscurity was now complete, so much so that she had to show Garret how to continuously summon his magic to create a makeshift lamp.

Elsa's mind blanked for the entire duration of their voyage. The only thing she was certain of was how far she was from her home. She wanted to play her insane day back in her head just like she always did, but she had realized just how hungry she was and that she couldn't think of anything else than her next step, focusing the little energy she had left into not letting Garret out of her sight.

Her forehead almost bumped into said man's nape. He had inadvertently stopped right in the middle of his tracks.

"Oh!"

"Sorry, majesty. Should have warned about this one too…" he said. He then lifted his finger to their left, where the faint light spreading from his open palm allowed Elsa to make out the unclear contour of a cave's entrance. "We can stay there tonight. Do you know how to light a fire?" he asked.

She nodded. She had never tried it before, but she knew the basics from that book about the more indigenous tribes that inhabited the northern parts of the land: she needed some rocks, a few branches, and open air. All of which were fortunately in abundance around her.

"You're full of surprises," Garret said, his grin the same fake and tired one he had been displaying since the day she had met him. "I'll try to fetch us something to eat, you can handle the fire?"

He had phrased it like a suggestion to be approved by her, but she knew he was the voice that mattered in their situation.

She couldn't pinpoint exactly why he'd act like that, but a part of her wanted it to be because he'd wished to keep their interactions on a familiar standpoint. It wasn't much, but it did warm her heart a tiny tidbit.

She now knew he wasn't that type of man, but how he hadn't just dumped her on the floor and fled far away was still a question that she couldn't shake off her mind, along with another.

_Was he ever as merciless as Grand Pabbie made it sound?_

After she agreed, Garret disappeared into the night as soon as she had everything she needed and came back half an hour later holding a very rough frozen bowl filled with blue and blackberries, and what looked like a small piece of raw meat.

He had surely captured a rabbit, and the fact that he had bothered to butcher the animal far from her eyes was another subtle and thoughtful little detail that somewhat lifted her spirits despite the dreary circumstances.

"I had trouble finding much else," he said as he neared the improvised camp. "I know this is not a very refined meal, but I think it'll allow you to use your powers again. At least a little."

_Wait… That's why they wouldn't respond?_

"What, you didn't know that?" he asked with a small chuckle, obviously noticing the air of shock all across her face. She stared at him like a cat in front of a wool ball as he gently settled the food at her side and put the meat over the fire with—quite oddly—closed eyes. "I guess you didn't have that many occasions to feel very hungry…" he said with a lighthearted shrug. "I found that if I'm starv—if I don't have enough energy, the ice just won't come out. You were paralyzed too. I suppose that didn’t help either."

Elsa gazed upon her hands, examining her long and slender fingers as if discovering an entirely new part of her body. She indeed never had to suffer long-term hunger, and she did try to suppress her powers for most of her life.

The fire crackled with a furrow of sparks, its brilliance piercing the cavern's darkness like a lighthouse's beam would the night sea's heavy mist.

Garret sat a bit further from the small flames than she'd first assumed and crossed his legs. "Please, go ahead," he said.

"You're not eating?" she asked.

"I can go pretty long without food," he explained. "That's nowhere near enough for two, and we'll need your powers more than we'll need mine tomorrow."

"But I can't!" Elsa exclaimed. "You have to—Wait, _my_ powers _?"_

"Yes, yours. I already told you, you’re leagues ahead of me, Your Majesty. Using your powers instead of mine will lift the odds to not-so-ridiculously-low-you-could-step-on-them levels once things get serious."

He met her eyes with his, and the fire that reflected in his pupils was only overshadowed by the sadness beading through the green flashes.

"Still–"

"Majesty, please. Let me be stubborn too."

She let the hands she had lifted fall back to her lap. "At least, let me tighten back those bandages."

He kept his eyes on hers with a small smile. "Yes, I forgot about that," he said. He turned around, freeing his back from the cavern's moisty walls and lifting the bottom of his shirt slightly as she approached and knelt behind him. She was greeted by the rough skin again.

Elsa busied herself carefully, folding and turning pieces of fabric over to close the rolls of tissue around yet another wound caused by her ice. Her movements were slow, precise, meticulous, but her eyes were fixed on the low and earthbound face of the soldier before her.

Garret exhaled hoarsely, the sound vibrating his own back like an earthquake. Elsa knew her way around a sigh, and this one was definitely not one of relief, nor relaxation.

When finished, she let gentle fingers drag over the bandages.

"It is done," she said as she pulled away while the hem of his shirt fell over his injury.

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Elsa quietly walked back to her place beside the bonfire and sat in an unpleasant silence for a few minutes.

She didn't know why she felt the urge to ask what she then asked. Maybe it was the sight of his scars, the way he had snapped earlier in the afternoon, or his anxiety attack even before. Maybe it was Grand Pabbie's warning, or maybe it was her natural curiosity.

Maybe it was the armor, the fact that he still had his leg when he became a knight, the idea that he fought for his country, lost his mother. Maybe it was the memories of that village, of those children. And maybe it was that sigh; the sigh which had such a familiar ring to it that it still surprised her he had been the one to heave it.

She recognized something in the way he hung his head low. The way he brought himself down at every opportunity. The way _she_ had done all that herself, not that long ago. For all accounts, it was like gazing at a mirror.

He was her without Anna.

Elsa took inspiration from her own several-hours-prior self and saw him stiffen when she spoke softly.

"What happened the day you lost your leg?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope you enjoyed this one! Thank you Grand_Paladin for reviewing this chapter!
> 
> I'm taking a few interpretation liberties with canon on this one. Elsa's powers were never stated to be in direct correlation with her physical state, but they were never stated to not be correlated either. I'm taking the route where it makes the most sense (if they're impacted by her emotions, why not her physical state?). I will someday talk about my opinion of Frozen II - since, as I believe I already said, I'm planning a rewrite with significant changes - but I was disappointed we weren't given answers to questions like these.
> 
> Also, exams. Again. I'll do my best to upload in time, but I, unfortunately, cannot promise anything, especially since I live in Europe and everything is on lockdown. I'm adamant I take my time editing my chapters since English isn't my first language, and the exams will take priority.
> 
> Anyway, if you want to put yourself in the mood for the next chapter, search Moonsong by Adrian Von Ziegler on YouTube. And, I know I didn't specify it, but Bonnie Banks is indeed what Garret's mum sings to him :D.
> 
> That's all for now.
> 
> Peace and stay safe,
> 
> CalAm.


	13. Worthless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this one's at the start. Just a quick disclaimer: this chapter will handle the themes of depression and self-loathing. I don't know if it's explicit or very explicit, but I'm putting this here just in case it's a trigger for you. Otherwise, please enjoy it!

Roger stood proudly in the room, hearing his lieutenant's report with an attentive ear.

"How is he?"

"Last time I checked, they got the bleeding under control but I'm not sure he'll make it," Jack said. "The bullets hit an artery, and he's lost a fair amount of blood. For a guy that old, I'm honestly surprised he's still alive. The castle nurses are doing what they can, but I've seen younger men die of smaller stuff. Looks complicated if you want my opinion."

Roger's face fell. "Are those nurses supervised?"

"Yes. McRean and Hutry are watching over them. The princess and her…her guy, I guess? are with them too. The others are in the main hall with the other Arendellians, along with…the crazy one," Roger's lieutenant said with a light tap on his forehead.

"Thank you, Jack."

"Another thing. The princess said she wanted to talk to you."

_The princess?_

Roger threw a glance to Jack over his shoulders. "About what?" he asked.

"Negotiations. Allegedly. I'd be careful. People here are weird."

There was something about that lass. She earned his respect after he saw the way she had stormed on him and his men earlier on that shore without a single ounce of fear in her gaze. Even more so, after two strong fellows failed to contain her. An impressive feat for someone so small. She was a lioness; someone he should avoid underestimating.

"Bring her in," Roger said.

His lieutenant nodded and exited the room, leaving his commander and chief hunter alone with his mind.

 _Damn that rat,_ Roger thought with a clench of his fists.

There was one rule he'd never break. One rule that made him do what he did and pushed him to so many sacrifices. One rule he had sworn to follow ever since his brother had been made a martyr.

No creature of God would ever die by his group's actions or its inaction. Witches, demons, monsters, all would be purified through fire. Humanity, however, was innocent. Humanity he would protect.

And that shit-eating excuse of a duke had nearly made him break that rule when he fired a gun at the poor old fighter's side. He knew he was a madman; he had guessed that the second he laid eyes upon him. The constant fidgeting and the savage eyes at the mere mention of the witch were proof enough, but now this…

Roger had only accepted this contract and worked with the duke because he lacked the means to purify the Snow Queen on his own. The Eternal Winter was a testament to how dangerous this woman was, how urgent it was to deal with her.

But even then, he couldn't ignore the sins committed in front of him. Nor the profound and nauseating disdain he felt for that loathsome manlet.

Roger spun his pistol out of its holster on his hip and sighed at the smears of blood along the barrel. He grabbed a handkerchief on the table at his right and meticulously wiped away the traces of the abominable act the frenzied duke had perpetrated.

Sheathing it carefully, he looked at his surroundings. He cared little for sumptuous decorations, but he had to admit that the room was of particularly good taste. The draperies were fine and well woven, linked together by braided linen threads that hung lazily above a bed with discreet but detectable ornaments. The desk was polished and of noble wood - oak or mahogany perhaps? Roger could see two books dealing with trade treaties with the Southern Isles as well as European military orders of the previous century.

The queen's room was well-lit, well-furnished and well-placed in the castle's layout. He thanked its architects for such a simple and clear structure; he wouldn't have found it as easily otherwise.

He smiled despite himself at how well his plan had worked. Though he had been lucky he brought the _Ichtioandre_ rebreather prototype with him – that Frenchman was probably very happy with the generous compensation – everything else worked according to plan. All his pawns had moved in perfect sync. Waiting an entire week had given the castle enough time to think they were winning, and the fake cannon firing, as well as all the ensuing mayhem, allowed his men through the gates.

Had it not been for that satanic Armored Demon, he would have accomplished his mission by now.

Roger lifted his eyes to look beyond the window at the stunning scenery of the slumbering and dimly lit fjord before him. The sentinels he had deployed had still not returned. Sending more troops wouldn't have helped if they weren't caught already, they were likely beyond reach. He wished he could've prepared more.

But there lay the benefit of occupying the castle. Doubt was the only thing he needed. And, as pained as he was to admit it, the fact that the old counselor had been injured in front of the two ice-wielders showed that he was dangerous. From the little he knew about the witch, he was certain she would come back. The Demon he wasn't so sure about, but he could go after him later if he had to. The prize, for now, was the Snow Queen.

The door behind him creaked open. He slowly turned around as Jack appeared with an angry and growling princess whose hands were bound behind her back.

"I can walk on my own, you filthy–"

"Highness," Roger said with a bow.

The princess whirled her head toward him and spat on the floor. "Shagbag."

He ignored the disrespectful slur–the circumstances and her temperament made it understandable, if not distinguished. "Let her go, Jack. Please."

His lieutenant nodded and obeyed, setting her free then blocking the punch that she threw at the side of his face immediately after with ease. Jack forced her fist down and lifted an eyebrow. Roger knew he'd be delighted to continue the exchange of courtesies. He shook his head, notifying his lieutenant of his disapproval.

"Please, Princess. I admire your verve but be careful not to turn it into foolishness."

She seemed to settle down a bit, still eyeing the way larger man behind her with unhidden disgust and contempt.

"I don't listen to advice from lowlifes like you."

"Then, as is tradition among lowlifes, you won't mind if I don't listen to what you have to say."

"Wait," she objected hurriedly when Jack took a step toward her, her eyes still spitting lightning bolts in his direction. "Whatever it is you're getting paid, we'll give you double if you leave. No strings attached."

Roger stayed silent for a moment. He then scoffed loudly.

"You _really_ want to take this offer right now," she added, her tone low and gruntled.

"You don't even know how much that is, highness."

"I don't care how much, I'll pay it! Just leave Elsa and Arendelle alone. You've done enough harm."

Roger observed the princess' face. Flushed cheeks, reddened ears, pursed lips. By the looks of it, she almost seemed like she was repressing tears. Her hands at her sides were noticeably shaking. Despite that, her eyes remained focused on his.

_What a strange mix of anger and fear._

"I'm afraid that's not how it works," he said. "I understand your reasoning, though. We have fewer men, but all your able-bodied fighters are unarmed, and above all, we have you. Ah, the joys of well-established monarchies. The problem with beloved leaders is that if you take them down, their followers fall with them. So, you know your people won't rebel. Next best thing? Bribery! Really, it does make sense. But no. Money was never the core of the matter, you see?"

The princess snared at him further. Her words came out like venom out of a snake's fangs. "What do you want, then?"

"I thought it was clear enough, but I'll lay it down for you. We want to burn the witch."

Anna stepped forward, her irises blazing. "What did she ever do to you? Leave her be!" Jack didn't let his eyes off her. He was ready to jump in at the faintest sign of danger.

"She didn't do anything to me," Roger said with a small smile as he lifted his hand to rest on his chest. "She did to you."

"Wha–No, she didn't!"

"So, I suppose that white streak in your hair was just you feeling stylish today."

The princess' hand snapped up to hide the small witness of the witch's destructive impulse. "She didn't mean it," she gnarled.

"Then, what about the Winter? Did she ever think about anyone else when she created that storm? Or did she also 'not mean it'?" Roger air quoted.

"You don't know her. I do. She'd never mean to hurt anyone."

"And Eve never meant to send us all out of Eden, yet here we are. The problem isn't the will or the intent, highness. The problem is what actually happens."

The princess dashed forward, her teeth bared and knuckles ready to strike. Jack stopped her mere inches away from Roger's face.

" _You_ are telling me that?! How can you–How _dare_ you–" she suddenly burst out with a hiccup, tears starting to stream on her cheeks. The princess let all her unhindered rage out. "You dare tell me that the problem is what _she_ does?! He was protecting her! You shot him while he was protecting her! He's gone because of you!"

Roger's mind froze for a few seconds and his throat tightened into an almost painful knot. All the justifications he had prepared vanished, and he was overcome by a sensation of emptiness. "He died?"

"You KILLED him!" the princess howled in evident pain. She was still trying to come at him, her fury unfazed by the huge arms holding her back. Her expression had changed. The anger was there, but the other half was different.

No, it hadn't changed. He was just seeing it properly now.

_It's not fear. It's sadness._

Roger looked at his lieutenant for confirmation. Above the tuft of red hair, Jack nodded grimly without another word. The poor old man was indeed gone.

He dropped his gaze to the ground and stood a bit taller. He couldn't allow her to see that it was affecting him.

"She will die, Princess. You'd better come to terms with that. At the very least, take solace in the fact that your kingdom will be free of sorcery when I'm done. I trust you'll be a good leader to your people," Roger said with solemnity. "Get her out of here and bring me whoever's in charge of the castle's management," he ordered his second-in-command.

"You'll never catch her! She'll blast you off! She'll make you pay!" she shouted finally, struggling like a tiger in Jack's grip as he lifted her off the ground and dragged her out. She threw frantic knuckles the whole way while her tears mingled with sweat down her face. "No! Let me down right now! I swear to–You won't get her!" her voice broke when the door slammed behind her, her cries still traversing the beige planks.

Roger turned back to the stainless window overlooking the kingdom. He took his eyepatch off, letting his left eye adapt to the faint halo that flickered in the room. He dragged two fingers over his forehead, his shoulders and the middle of his chest in a cross-shaped movement and joined his palms together after he closed his eyes.

"Father of all. Grant to him eternal rest. Let your light forever shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace," he prayed, a single stray tear slowly drifting over his face.

When he opened his eyes back again, he stared in surprise at how much his hands shook. A thin veil clouded his thoughts, but the face of the duke emerged through the mist. He had to contain his wrath.

Someone knocked. Roger hastily wore his eyepatch and linked his hands behind his back, allowing himself to calm down. As soon as he gave the authorization to enter, Jack stepped in with a heavy foot, dragging a plump and terrified looking man by the collar.

"Easy there… That is a fine suit, we don't want it ruined for the gentleman, do we?" he warned Jack, his gaze hard. "Who am I talking to?" he then asked the newcomer.

The man kept quiet, glaring with narrowed eyes. Jack answered in his stead.

"This is Kai. Some scared kid told me he was the chamberlain."

"Very well, Sir Kai. Silence will not do you any favors, so I suggest you answer my questions, please. First, is it true that your kingdom lost someone tonight?"

Another silence. Kai was sweating profusely, and his eyes darted everywhere in the room except on him. While the princess had been difficult to read, the chamberlain was much more transparent. He was scared shitless, but he was trying – and spectacularly failing – not to show it.

_Is everyone in this godforsaken kingdom this hard-headed?_

Roger sighed. "You have my word that no harm will come to you or anyone here because of your answers."

He already knew the answer to his question, but he needed to see the man tell something he was certain was true.

He had never been an adept of the more imperious methods, but they proved quite effective from time to time – especially in situations like these. He signaled with a quick nod to his lieutenant.

Jack gave Kai a forceful push on the shoulder, strong enough to startle him. "Answer. The. Questions," he growled between his teeth.

"Sir… Sir Jürden left us… Thirty minutes ago," he finally conceded, his gaze low.

"I see," Roger answered. "Are there any _special_ rituals that are accomplished for the departed?"

Kai lifted a curious glance his way. "What?"

"I'm asking you if there is anything that you usually do to honor those who rise to the heavens. This Jürden died defending his liege. While she is a monster, I respect his dedication, and he deserves to be remembered like the warrior he was."

Kai stared at him in silence.

"Do you not wish to properly bury him? Or incinerate him?" Roger asked in confusion.

"We…do have a few rituals."

"What are they?"

"We…" He stopped, wary and doubtful. Kai's hesitation was understandable, but Roger was still growing impatient.

"Speak, damn it!" Jack dangerously muttered.

"All right, all right! There are…three different parts. We ring the bell of Arendelle to call the spirits to him and grant him passage to the higher plane. Then we erect a runestone in his memory on his burial site. After…After all that, because he was a government member and a close friend of the royal family, we drape a black veil over his portrait."

Roger acquiesced solemnly. "Understood. You have the permission to proceed to all of that. Jack? Please see to it. They have to be accompanied through everything."

"As you wish," his lieutenant answered. "Let's go, old man. You have things to do."

Once again, Jack left the room with a hostage. Roger took a few moments to reorganize his thoughts. Death was something he never liked to deal with, but he couldn't deny what he had to do.

His path was clear. Retribution was due. And he was her vessel.

* * *

Garret glanced back at Elsa with wide eyes. She wanted to know? About his _leg_?

_Where did that come from?_

"I don't know. I'm feeling bold tonight," she said wistfully as her right hand slowly caressed her left arm.

"Wait…I said that out loud?" Garret asked, surprised at himself for letting his thoughts slip out.

Her gaze lifted from the fire she had been staring at until then, and with a small nod that made her braid graciously jump up and down her shoulder, she dragged her eyes to meet his. Their corners were slightly wrinkled by her smile, as pure and radiant as all the others although filled with more melancholy.

"I'm not too good with words, nor the most socially adept person out there," Elsa said after a short laugh. "But even I can guess the impact it had on you. And as I told you this morning, the less you keep it to yourself, the better I think you'll be able to move on."

Garret mouth dried a little. He flashed a glance outside the cavern and heaved a sigh, trying to ignore the weight on his stomach. He crossed his arms.

"There are…some things that are best left unsaid."

"I don't agree with that."

"Doesn't make it less true, though."

"Garret," she called in a more serious tone. "Do you consider me a friend?"

The question had the effect of an anvil being dropped on his chest. "Wha –"

"Please, answer honestly," she continued. "Am I a friend to you? I realize it hasn't been long, and I'm not very perceptive about these things so please excuse my bluntness, but I do wish to know."

He turned back to her. Her face was slightly flushed, the tip of her ears slowly growing redder as she absentmindedly played with the end of her braid. Her eyes were scanning his own visage, surely for any sign of repulsiveness if he was to trust what he knew about her.

_No inhibition. Danger is a hell of a drug._

He answered her question with another question. "Do _you_ consider me a friend?"

He expected her to be caught off guard. Or at least a little surprised. Instead, she threw him another smile.

"I do," Elsa said without even skipping a beat. She didn't wait for him to react. "I do consider you a friend. And if that expression is any clue, you think so too." She leaned in his direction, gently putting a hand on the ground and the other over her chest. "Do you trust me?" she asked softly.

Garret barely prevented his jaw from dropping.

 _The famed turned tables,_ he thought with a chuckle. He took a second to collect himself and then nodded slowly, eliciting a small breath of relief on her part he was sure she believed he hadn't heard.

Was everyone in Arendelle some sort of mind-reading automaton? Or was he just _really_ not as good at hiding his emotions as he thought he was? He remembered the numerous times he had put on a brave face in front of pretty much everyone he had met. Maybe the sisters were the only ones who told him they saw through him?

" _Not the most socially adept person,_ huh?" Garret said with a sigh, the knot in his guts untangling progressively while the feeling of his heart clenching gained more traction.

Elsa straightened back up in a dignified pose fitting for royalty but kept a small smile over her lips. "I have my moments."

"You certainly do."

"I do not wish to force anything upon you. I just wanted you to know that, if you ever want to show me what happened, I'm here."

 _You owe her that,_ he thought as the possibility of disclosing everything slowly appeared more and more justified. _She deserves to know._

"Tell you what. You finish your meal, and we talk about this again," he finally said.

She seemed delighted for a moment, then relieved, and finally, she adorned a more playful air that mixed in a surprisingly effective harmony with her solemn tone. "Finish my meal? What's the next step? Are you going to berate me for not eating enough broccoli?"

"Take it or leave it," he said with a lifted eyebrow and a fake cocky grin.

"Very well."

With a final smile, Elsa picked up the rough triple-headed arrow tip he had created for her to use as a fork and proceeded to pick her way through her food with an elegance he would have considered impossible to achieve in their situation. The way she delicately lifted the meat to her mouth and took small bite after small bite strangely filled him with a sense of rapturous wonder. He resisted the urge to laugh at her lifted pinky and how she treated her food like it was a cup of fragile crystal.

He suddenly realized with quick blinks how insistent his staring was. Fortunately for him, she was too concentrated on her meal to notice.

Her chewing captured his attention. Her _chewing_.

He snapped his head to the side, his heart rate through the roof, and carelessly let his eyes meet the fire's crimson light.

The wave of horror washed over him in an overwhelming torrent. He always avoided direct contact for a reason.

_Get it together!_

Despite the exterior calmness he was exerting himself to display, Garret was terrified. Of what he had seen and what she was going to see.

Everything. Absolutely everything. The shame of his life, the mistake that destroyed his family.

He took slow breaths, soaking in the inescapable eventuality that she would know. She had called herself his friend. She had to see how much of a failure he was.

"I'm done!" he heard her voice chirp from his right after some minutes of silent contemplation.

"Already?" he asked as he brought his gaze to her once more, seeing her stand up from her place and come closer to him with light steps that made her look like she was floating. She gently let the frozen bowl down at his side, still half-full, and sat with her legs neatly tucked underneath. "Umm, majesty. You didn't finish."

"I ate enough," she said. "Your turn to dig in."

He rolled his eyes. "Stubborn, was it?"

"Very."

He sighed again and brought his prosthetic leg closer to her.

"Promises made," he conceded.

His shaking hand drifted in the air and came to tug at the hem of his pants, letting the ice that he used as his foot feel the cold night air.

He released another breath. His heart was pounding so hard against his ribcage he was surprised she couldn't hear it.

Elsa's eyes were glued to his leg the whole time, and she gulped when the full prosthesis came out. Just like the first time, she stood by, not wanting to start without his authorization, and gently approached it with her hand.

Garret anxiously waited for her fingers to meet his ice. The seconds stretched endlessly as the spinning that was starting to mess with his own mind gained in intensity. He focused on the end of her nails, gaping at how they now looked like arrow tips pointed toward him.

He shut his eyes and let his ears fuel his anguish instead. He heard her soft exhales that carried both excitement and apprehension. He heard the swift whistle of the breeze outside, the hooting of the owls, the ruffling of the leaves, the crackling, the buzzing.

He heard the shouts echoing, the blood dripping, the ruins rumbling, the explosions booming.

"Wait," he called, out of breath.

Elsa immediately stopped and opened back the eyelids she had closed a few seconds before.

"I'm…I'm sorry…" Garret spurted. "I don't want you to see this."

Her features dropped visibly, and she brought her hand back to her lap in disappointment.

"I underst–"

"I'd rather talk about it."

She perked up again, this time in a mix of astonishment and curiosity. "You…You do?"

A small grin grew on his face almost involuntarily. If she was to know, he wanted her to know from him. Not from _it_.

"I have to learn one way or another, innit?"

Elsa gave him a supportive bob of her head. She scooped closer while throwing her braid in her back and settled in place, her expression one of a perfect serenity he wished he could feel.

"Whenever you feel comfortable," she said in her soft voice that rang like a song in his ears.

_There you go. She's waiting. Got to start sometime. Anytime now._

Garret stared at his leg but wasn't really looking at it.

_While we're young._

"You… You saw me in the destroyed village with the kids, right?"

She nodded.

_That wasn't so bad._

"It all starts from there. Um… That was… A complicated day. But I guess to understand that, I have to explain why I was in the army in the first place. As I believe I already told you, it is pretty much family tradition. My father was already an experienced colonel by the time I came of age. He spent most of his time in London, but since my mother couldn't stand crowds, we both stayed in Linton, his little hometown lost in pastures not far from a city called Cambridge. When he discovered my abilities, he trained me to use them for combat, so I could be more than ready when I enlisted. He also burned all the influence he could to get me to climb the ladder faster. I joined an elite team before I turned twenty thanks to that. Record-breaking. An incredible feat," he said with unhidden irony. "The brass kept my powers a secret from everyone except those who had to know."

"So, your father decided everything for you?" she asked, her hand slowly squeezing her own shoulder.

"Not really, he always made it clear that if I wanted to, I could bail out anytime. I just wanted to make him proud. My mother wasn't the biggest fan of it, but since he made sure the team I was a member of wasn't the one to handle the riskier missions, she tolerated it. And I have to admit the old man had some flair – I actually turned out to be damn effective."

"How so?"

"I had the armor. No rifle or sword could hurt me. I had the benefit of being stealthy and as a little bonus, I didn't need ammo," Garret explained as he mimicked firing an arrow. "He was beyond happy. He was proud. But everything I achieved, everything I accomplished was because of him. I only became a knight because he pushed for it."

Elsa glanced to the ground. "I… see."

The beating in his chest gave no sign of dying down, and Garret could still see his fingers trembling. The hardest parts were coming.

"We were sent on what was supposed to be a simple asset recovery. We heard that some rebellious group that wasn't the biggest supporter of what the Empire had done in India wanted to grab it and–understandably–we wanted them not to. This is where the village comes in. I wasn't told why back then, but I had been forbidden from using the armor for a few missions."

Elsa narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Why would your superiors send just a few men and prohibit your magic? It sounds...dangerous?"

"They just didn't know at the time. We had little intel before we got there. Just to give you an idea, the asset turned out to be an enormous cache of gunpowder the size of a darn house when we were expecting a carriage at most. And the group had already been there, in way larger numbers than us, when they were only supposed to be a handful _and_ on the other side of the country. As for the armor, I know nobody would have confessed, but they were growing scared of me. Anyway. The village. The terrorists used it as cover to hinder our progress. As you can probably guess, things did not go… smoothly." Garret sighed heavily and fiddled with his fingers. "I killed for the first time that day."

Elsa nodded somberly as if he had confirmed something she already knew. "That must have been hard."

"On the spur of the moment you don't really think about it," he explained with a shrug. "You just don't want to die. But later, when you see that you're breathing and that the other guy isn't because you released a string…" Garret sighed again and shook his head. "That's not the issue. I knew what I had to do. Those guys would have killed everyone. It took a few innocent deaths to make me understand that."

"Do you… Do you regret it?"

Garret lifted his eyes and let them wander around the cave, settling on the dancing shadows drawn on the walls by the small fire. "That's not an easy question. On one hand, horrible things and taking lives. On the other, more horrible things and letting people die. I can't really say."

"I had a feeling… Nonetheless, I appreciate your honesty," Elsa said, her voice trembling but sincere. "I can picture that decisions where you must weigh lives are often much bigger than we're led to believe. There was no good choice..."

"Yeah. But as I told you, that wasn't the issue. In the battle's confusion, one of those bast–those terrorists ignited the cache, and I had to make a choice. Go after their leaders or stay behind and protect the villagers from the explosion."

"What did you do?"

"I… I wish I could say I did something. I stood there, paralyzed. Like a moron who couldn't choose between pudding and a beer. I didn't move, waiting for divine illumination, I guess," Garret spat, sensing his anger rising once again. "Well… I did eventually move, but too late."

Elsa drew a sharp breath through her teeth, her pupils dilating. "Did anyone…"

"There lied my mistake. I was forced to summon the armor, and I was able to cover the kids but not many more. Their parents, for example, I couldn't...And the leaders saw it. They saw a figure covered in ice plates that tore through their men and ran out of the rubble. They saw an ice witch. An Armored Demon. And I allowed them to leave."

Elsa seemed on the verge of saying something, but shortly after appeared lost for words. She simply met his gaze, wincing in sympathy.

"So, the rebels look for someone to deal with what they saw. For the greater good. Because being a terrorist doesn't mean you don't love thy neighbor, I guess? They find Hopkin's Blessed–which was then led by Roger's brother. And in just a few months, thanks to my incredible feats of arms which I always accomplished with a helmet on my face, the hunters are able to piece together sightings and rumors with new intel to form this conclusion: ' _The Armored Demon is a red-headed witch that lives in a small town near Cambridge'._ "

Elsa looked deep in thought for a few moments. Suddenly, her hand snapped up to cover her mouth, her horrified gasp and bulging eyes clearly showing that she knew where he was going.

"They came to our house in the middle of the night. They found her. She corresponded to the description. Red hair. Living in Linton. A woman. The term _witch_ never seemed so appropriate. They didn't need much more." Garret tightened his shaking arms around him. The force he applied as he dug his nails into his skin almost drew blood, but he didn't care much. "They didn't even think of me, because come on, everyone knows witches are women. First of all, and for good measure, they blew up the house – her _lair,_ they called it – while I was in there. When I woke up, I realized I'd lost my leg along with my consciousness. I had to create this _thing_ …" he added with a disgusted grunt toward his ice prosthesis. "…and then they brought her to the stake. I was beaten up. The armor didn't answer. I was powerless. I watched them burn her," he finished, the flashes of crimson that passed before his eyes making him seal them in pain. "That was three years ago."

"That's horrible… I didn't know," Elsa said in a broken voice. "I…I'm so terribly sorry…"

"I remember everything. The way she screamed, the sound of her steps as she tried to run, how it was silenced. All because I couldn't decide. Because the armor wouldn't come when I needed it the most. Because I was cursed with these powers. All of that, because of me."

He turned quiet and gazed outside the cavern. He wanted to cry. But what purpose would it serve? She knew who he was, how much his mistake had cost him. The least he could do was keep it together.

"That's why you hate yourself…" Elsa's soft voice uttered.

 _Heh. Apt way of putting it,_ he thought with a dejected shrug.

"Either way, I could have saved someone's parent if I had just chosen. My walking partner here reminds me of that every sunrise. I tried to get rid of it, but it just won't go. My own personal chains."

He sensed a weight on his right forearm. Strange. Had a pebble fell off the roof? A quick glance showed him it actually had been Elsa's hand that came to rest close to the crook of his arm. She gave him a quick awkward pat before pulling away.

"I understand," she finally said.

Garret scoffed. "Do you really, though?" he answered with thick irony.

"I'm sure I do a lot more than you think."

Her voice had switched to a sadder undertone, and she was now holding her arms tightly around her body, curling up little by little. She took a breath that seemed endless and scanned his face in silence, no doubt weighing her next words with caution.

"Majesty, you and I know that's simply false. You are in no way–"

"I almost killed Anna."

Garret's blood drained from his face and his hand fell limply to his lap. "Wha–What?"

A few tears escaped from her eyes, wiped almost immediately by a delicate sweep. "Twice, actually."

Once more, Garret's tongue outsped his thoughts. "What happened?"

"The first time, we were young. I was eight, she was five. We were playing and…" She stopped for a second, letting the clearly painful memory wash away. "Grand Pabbie saved her, and my father decided to isolate me from then on. The second time was last year. When she came for me in my castle and told me that the whole kingdom was frozen… I lost control. I hit her heart."

Garret could only stare in astonishment. "How did she survive?"

"She saved my life with what would've been her last breath. Without that…" Elsa sniffed, struggling to maintain her smile. "I learned the lesson about love the hard way. That is why it is so important to me now. During my youth, there were some times when… I would contemplate a world without my magic. How a monster like me would disappear… Anna showed me another way."

"Your magic is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Garret replied immediately without an ounce of hesitation. "You're not a monster."

She gave him a tender smile. "I need a reminder every now and then but deep down, I know I'm not. Still, it took a little while and me almost losing my sister for me to realize that. So, I understand. And I also think it appropriate to tell you that you must learn to forgive yourself. You're not a monster either."

"Easy to say," he sighed as he locked his eyes with hers. Her efforts to cheer him up were cute, but he wasn't going to bury his head. "They're still dead because of me. _She_ 's still dead because of me."

"She's not dead because of you. I can't allow you to say that."

"I'm not saying anything. The facts speak for themselves."

"Garret," she called his name in a way no one had done in a long time – softly, gently, like she cared about him. He repressed the urge to ask her to do it again. "She was taken by lunatics who think a woman who can swim is a witch. Lunatics who'd rather burn than check. Lunatics who discovered your powers because you were thrust in a situation you couldn't handle on your own. You were clearly not experienced enough for such a mission, yet they still put you on the spot. And you tried to do what was right." She took a few seconds to collect her thoughts. "It pains me to see you like this. You stopped living that day. It doesn't have to mean your life has to end."

"I'm afraid things are a lot less complicated than that. Someone like me doesn't deserve a li–"

"No!" she exclaimed as she leaped to her feet, her fists clamped. "You deserve it!"

Garret slightly drew back at her outburst. The gentleness had not disappeared, nor the kind eyes, but there was now a fire in her gaze that almost outshone the one burning a few feet behind her.

"You saved Anna! Twice! You helped me out of the castle! You put yourself in danger for my kingdom and you asked for nothing in return!" she added immediately, panting lightly when she was done. "You're not someone who doesn't deserve a life!"

 _Why is she getting so worked up about this?_ Garret thought in confusion, his eyes darting here and there to scrutinize every inch of her posture. Not defensive, not aggressive. She looked like she was genuinely concerned. _Why?_

"You have to remember that we're not human despite our mistakes. We're human because of them," Elsa concluded a bit more calmly, her voice dying down like a cold storm's last gust while she cast her gaze to the ground below her. "You're not worthless."

And only then did it strike him.

The way she had talked to him, her experience with her own powers; she knew what he was going through. She had stayed alone and isolated for thirteen years. Because of _one_ mistake. If there ever was one person who could feel like he did, he was talking to her.

She didn't look like she was concerned. She _was_ concerned.

_Worthless._

Such a strong word. Such a _sharp_ word. An unsheathed sword that hadn't stopped poking him in the back for three years, following him wherever he went. A sensation of drowning in the middle of a school of fish. The feeling that he only slept to wake up and only woke up to sleep.

Not questioning where or when it would stop. Not paying attention to what he felt, not because he didn't care, but because there was nothing to pay attention to. Crossing villages and towns that all looked the same, but where people sounded different. Only focusing on his current step, because he wasn't sure there would be another one after the last.

Mourning the loss of something that he couldn't exactly pinpoint. He never even pondered what that might be. Those villagers? His mother? It couldn't be her. He had cried for her.

No. He had been trying to cry for himself for three years straight.

"Your mind is very set on this particular matter," Garret finally said with a quick clench of his knuckles.

Elsa slowly sat back down. "It is. Again, _very_ stubborn," she replied. It apparently took her a few seconds to notice his tears. "Garret?!" she called in worry.

He lifted a hand and chuckled lightly. "It's okay, Your Majesty. These are _good_ tears," he reassured. "Well, they come with relatively good news."

For the first time in a while, he could see himself.

He was tired. It had been exhausting. But he had to stop pretending that it wasn't. He had to stop pretending that everything was alright, that he was fine.

He wasn't.

He dried up his cheeks in a hurry and managed to grin. It wasn't fake. Instead, it was one of those that he had found himself displaying a lot more in the last two weeks. She had become very proficient at drawing them out of him.

"Still, I want you to keep in mind that you're the reason I'm crying," he joked.

She chuckled in response. "I take full responsibility, then."

"Somehow, we're either saving each other's lives or pouring our hearts out whenever we're together. It goes round and round. Can't we just, I don't know, grab a tea sometime? Or play some chess?"

"Some people are just born with trouble as their twin. And I'd much prefer a hot chocolate," Elsa started as a more joyous expression illuminated her features. She patiently let him clean his face up. "Just in the case that it needed to be said, I think you are a good man."

She had said that. Out of all the people, his father, his 'friends', those who had seen his magic, even when she knew about it all, _she_ said that.

Garret lifted his head in her direction. "I…"

Warmth. Inside.

Such a long time. It was more of a spark than a roaring flame, not as brilliant nor as blazing as it used to be, but it was a start.

He wanted to say something. Surely, there was something he could say. Anything.

There was one simple sentence. One he had spoken many times but never truly. One he had uttered that same morning, in a similar situation.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," she answered soberly with a bright smile on her serene face.

They then sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, soon interrupted by Elsa.

"You still have to eat…"

"Oh!" Garret had completely forgotten the bowl at his side. She wasn't going to hear anything of it, was she?

"I know your magic is less demonstrative…" Elsa continued.

"You're looking for 'pompous'."

She ignored the interruption with a lifted eyebrow and a contained smile. "...but I'd much rather avoid you passing out yet another time."

"Oof. Throwing jabs now. You don't know what you started there, majesty. Some confidence in your boxing."

She picked up a minuscule twig on the ground and threw it at him. "You started it!"

He laughed, seeing her eye him with that same curious glance. "You're right. I'm gonna need that energy tomorrow. It may be a bit hard to believe, but taking a castle isn't as easy as they made it look."

Elsa's eyes looked like a blobfish ready to conflagrate. "Taking–Taking a castle...?"

"Yeah. If he's expecting me to hide, he'll be in for one bloody hell of a surprise," he said with a quick nod. "Can't have a rainbow without a little rain. I have to stop running at some point."

They just had enough time to exchange a fleeting glance that said way more than words ever could before a distant sound rang in Garret's ear, waving in a melodious knell.

_Music? No, too simple. A signal? Neither, too complicated._

Elsa picked up on his concern. "Is everything all right?"

"I'm hearing something."

The pair stood up and in a joined motion planted themselves just outside the cavern. Elsa threw random looks around, prepared for anything, while Garret tried to locate the origin of what he was perceiving. However, it was too far to give anything more than a general direction.

"It's coming from there," he stated as he lifted his index finger to his right.

"That's where we came from. Arendelle."

He really had to work on his sense of direction. "Surely. It sounds like a chime. Or a bell."

Elsa's chest heaved with a sharp breath. "A bell? Can you…hear the melody?" she asked with clear anxiousness as she linked her hands above her chest.

"Yeah. Just a second."

He focused on the sound, letting himself be imbued with its simple but soft and ethereal hum. Close to vocalization, it provoked unexpected goosebumps that traveled up his arms. He wasn't the best singer out there–truthfully, he couldn't sing for his life–but he tried to convey the theme he heard the best he could.

Elsa's face fell a bit more with each note, her anxiousness disappearing progressively to let a wave of disbelief accompanied by a tinge of despair show through.

" _Til Solen_."

" _Gesundheit_?"

The blue of her dress shimmered against the darker background, shining and pulsing like a ring's perfect crystal, the reflection of the cavern's bonfire giving her an air of a mythical creature that stood between night and day. "Arendelle's funeral hymn..."

Garret's breath caught up in his throat as if he had received the full force of a blow to his sternum. He froze, not able to budge a single muscle.

"Jürden?" he eventually managed to blurt out, holding back a curse shortly after.

_Who asks that?! Especially after what you saw?_

She did not answer. She didn't even give him the impression that she had heard his words. Elsa let her head drop, tears starting to meander down her cheeks once more. She clasped her hands in apparent dolor, uttering a few prayers in a language he did not understand.

The tears gradually intensified, to the point where she seemed unable to contain her sobs. There was little he could say to ease the hurt. But as she showed him herself twice in a single day, being there was a relative relief on its own. He took a hesitant step and brought his hand to hover a few inches above Elsa's shoulder. He then let his palm gently meet her bare skin, sensing her tense up as she threw him a saddened and misty glance.

"I wish I had the right words," he said, giving her a soft rub with his thumb.

She slightly eased down under his touch and managed a shaky smile. "Doesn't everyone?" Elsa whispered before she choked up and went her back to her muffled crying.

His heart sank for her, for her grief, for what that loss meant to her. He had merely talked to the counselor a few times, but even he could see the kingdom mourned a grand man. And even beyond losing a trusted ally, she feared to hear that bell count down the people of Arendelle. Her family. Her home. He could understand that fear.

What he knew about Roger no longer held. He had reached a new conclusion earlier in the afternoon: the only way to eject him from the kingdom was to bring the fight to him. He was probably waiting for Elsa; not so much for Garret.

He checked on his left hand. The ice shards were almost invisible this time, but there was a lingering steam that seemed to pour out of his skin in a calm and poised flow.

He looked straight ahead, a new resolution fueling his will. For the first time in quite a while, he had an objective, a target. He closed his fist, dissipating the mist in a flurry of twinkling micro-crystals.

Elsa had a kingdom to reclaim. And he would be the wind beneath her wings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hope you enjoyed! Thanks Grand_Paladin for reviewing this chapter!
> 
> Yeah, I think I will just stop giving you exam notifs cuz I always end up writing anyway lmao
> 
> \- Man, this was a tough one. Above all else, I was adamant not to be disrespectful and treat depression lightly. The first Frozen did it in a so-so way, even though the core message was genuinely good. And just in case you were wondering, I don't believe Elsa has gotten past hers completely by the start of FII - and obviously not here either - and Garret is definitely not past his by the end of this chapter. This is just a starting point.
> 
> \- A few update points for the rest of the story: I initially envisioned 20 chapters, but it seems that with some rearranging I can narrow it down to 17 or 18. Don't worry, the story won't change, it's just a matter of where to start and end the chapters. The next chapter will thus be a bit shorter than the previous ones; sorry about that...
> 
> \- Ice, Fire and Shadow has been updated! Chapter 2 is up!
> 
> Next chapter's theme is Skulls and Trombones by Two Steps From Hell - yeah, I like their music hehe. On YouTube too!
> 
> A huge thank you to you for sticking with the story and to those of you who took some of their precious time to comment! If you have anything you want to share with me, please go ahead! I answer to all the comments/reviews!
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	14. Arendelle

There was a light. Not any light. One that came from within. A pulsating spark that grew and grew and grew.

Tears as well. Why? Why tears?

She lifted her eyes. Anna was there. She was hunched forward, just like she did when she'd eaten too much. But there was something wrong. She called for her.

Her sister gave her a strained and contrived smile. There was blood flowing out of her mouth. She was holding her chest tight. What was wrong?

She soon understood. There was an icicle piercing her heart. _Her_ icicle _._

Elsa jolted awake, her eyes wide. The steady dripping of water from the cavern's walls above her, the loud beating in her ears, and her quickened breaths were the only sounds she could hear.

_Another one of those dreams._

They had been very frequent during the times just after the Great Thaw, but she still had them on rare occasions lately. Fortunately, this one hadn't been the most vivid. Stress, probably.

She slowly massaged her eyelids.

_Alright, Elsa. Don't let it get to you._

The visions were but figments of her imagination. Anna was alive and well. She couldn't let her own mind play games on her at such a crucial moment.

Elsa's hand fell to her lap; her breathing had gone back to its usual rhythm.

She called for her ice, and to her joy, a few snowflakes appeared on her palm. She threw her hands to her sides and let the familiar surge power through her arms. The snow danced and spiraled and rejoiced with her, as if happy to retrieve an old friend.

 _Welcome back,_ Elsa thought with a smile, the snowflakes dissipating away with a pitch that resembled a giggle.

The day was already well underway according to the flow of light that streamed inside and dully shone off the pebbles scattered on the ground. The fire not far from her had been extinguished for a long time, leaving only ash and dust in its wake. Her eyes swept the makeshift shelter Garret had found the day before and she realized that he was nowhere to be seen. She didn't want to panic, but her rising heart rate was indicating otherwise. There was a rustling just outside that overlapped with the echo of the wind crashing against the stone walls inside the cave.

"Garret?" she called, her voice hesitant.

The strange sound stopped immediately. Garret's head popped out of the right side of the entrance to the cavern, his gaze curious. Elsa brought a hand over her chest and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh! Good morning, Your Majesty," he greeted as he dusted his hands, coming into full view with a quick step to bow as awkwardly as he ever did. "Hope you slept well."

"Hello," Elsa responded. "I…did. Thank you. Although I thought you would have woken me earlier. How long have you been up?"

He lifted an eyebrow but eventually shrugged it off. He shot his gaze to the sky, seemingly looking for the sun for a few instants. "It's only around 10 o'clock, so I've been up for…threeish hours? I figured you'd like to sleep a bit. You needed the rest. There are some berries and apples in the bowl next to you. We can discuss what to do after you fill that belly?"

Elsa nodded. She devoured her breakfast in no time—she had been hungrier than ever before—and came outside to sit next to a busy Garret.

"Thank you for the meal," she said with a smile when she reached him.

"You're welcome," he answered.

He put down what he had been working on until then: a frozen arrow, similar in shape and form to the first he had shown her, yet purer, less clouded and thorny. There was an entire pile of them, neatly arranged in a perfect alignment she found surprisingly satisfying—she could even guess the relative progress between his first and last attempt just from the gradient of color. On their right were a quiver and his longbow, whose crystal-clear ice allowed her to see for the first time the different pulleys that gave it its bending properties.

"You've improved!" she realized aloud, gingerly picking up the latest of his creations to examine it with a closer eye. "This is even more solid than what you showed me yesterday!"

"Thanks," he muttered, his face flushed in embarrassment but still beaming with a proud rejuvenating smile. He looked so much like a happy child Elsa couldn't repress a small grin from curling up her own lips. "I figured actually trying after your advice would do no harm."

"The joints, the crystals; everything is stronger. It does seem to work just fine."

"Yes, it does."

"Why are you stockpiling them now, though? Can't you cast them on the spot?"

"I can, but it takes time. I'd rather have a stack to pick from if I don't have the choice. We're going to need a lot of them. We're assaulting an entire castle," he said, falling back on a more serious tone. "And about that, the first thing I can say is that we have to get inside as soon as we can. I suggest we find an elevated point. I need to study Arendelle's layout to figure out something to do. You wouldn't know of such a place now, would you?"

Elsa gave it a few seconds of thought. Her first trip to the North Mountain so long ago had taken her to somewhere she had drunk in the sight of her home for what she thought would be the last time.

"I think I know somewhere."

Garret laughed with a roll of his eyes. "Of course, you do," he said as he stood and flicked his bow over his shoulder. "What are we waiting for, then?"

* * *

The trip was calm, but the pair nonetheless remained vigilant, watching over each other's backs and scanning their surroundings with every step they took side by side. Garret had nocked an arrow on his bow, ready to fire at anything he found suspect. Elsa was tense, her hands cocked and charged with magic—just in case.

The complete quiet around her was driving her crazy. She tried to damp down the shaking in her legs, in her arms. She liked the comfortable silences she had shared with Garret on less _risky_ situations but remembering Anna's ramblings on a whim made her crave a conversation, of all things.

To keep her mind off her own trembling, she took some time to think over her exchange with Garret the previous night. She was beyond happy that he had chosen to share his burden with her, that he had opened up fully: she had once again helped him. And, if she was to be honest with herself, it also felt good to talk about what she had done, and to see him accept her mistake too. There was however one aspect that he hadn't mentioned and that felt as important as the others to her.

"You didn't tell me what happened to your father, yesterday," she murmured, her words going out faster than her thoughts could contain them.

He turned around to face her with an eyebrow arched. "Now?" he whispered back.

She felt sheepish for letting her thoughts escape out, but the anxiousness was still nagging at the back of her head. "It's just—it was so silent…"

Garret sighed, letting his shoulders slightly slump down. He observed her for a second, seemingly realizing how nervous she was. "Yeah, conversation can help us stay focused. We just have to keep it down, okay?" She eagerly nodded and he brought his eyes back ahead. "He's still alive for all I know if that's what you're wondering about. I haven't seen him ever since I left. I didn't mention him that much because—" He stopped for a moment, throwing a quick look to the trees around. "—because last time we spoke wasn't the merriest of my memories with him. The circumstances were…It was just after my mother was…you know. He was angry, I was lost…We both said things we shouldn't have. Hurtful things."

"Hurtful things?"

"That's a tame way to put it. He lashed at me for basically everything. And I pretty much did the same."

Elsa knew too well the power of words spat in anger. Her own had triggered the gigantic catastrophe her kingdom had suffered a year ago. She pushed the thought away.

"You don't look like you meant them. I'm sure he didn't either."

He gave her a smile, but he had gone back to his tired-looking façade. "It's hard to find people as optimistic as you are, excellency."

"Optimism is in short supply. I try to learn from my sister to always try to seek the positive in every possible situation...I don't always remember to, mind you."

"I see. Noble outlook on life, I must say. Anna and you do seem to form quite the pair. Except for dancing maybe…"

Elsa's face flushed. "Oh, yes. She always has this idea that she has to teach me to dance…"

"You don't know how to?" Garret asked in dumbfounded confusion.

"Oh, I do. I just don't want to," Elsa replied with a shrug.

"Huh. Don't like eyes on you?"

"That…is a part of it."

"Understandable."

Elsa's eyes narrowed. "That's it? No more questions? People usually inquire further."

"Nah. I can see you're not very excited to talk about it. Bet you looked good during practice, though," he said with a broad smile she returned immediately. She was fond of the little attentions Garret dropped here and there whenever they talked—they were always thoughtful and warmed her heart. "But now that you asked about my family, do I get to ask about yours?"

"Depends on what you ask."

Garret took a quick inspiration. "When we talked about my time in the army, it seemed to irk you that my father drew my path for me. Do you…Do you resent yours? Father, I mean. Not path."

Elsa had anticipated something like that. It was a question she'd asked herself on many occasions. But each time her answer was the same.

"He made a mistake too, but I couldn't resent him. Nobody can be prepared to have their child be like me. He loved me with all his being, I know that. Though he didn't always show it…"

"Most fathers do not. I like to think it's to keep their sleeping intact."

Elsa lightly laughed. "Maybe. But everything he did—everything they _both_ did—they did it to protect Anna and me. I only wish I'd been more vocal myself. I'd give anything to have him know how much I love him," she said as she played with her fingers.

"I have a feeling he knew," Garret said after a quick pause. He was smiling, his gaze cast to the ground.

"I can only hope. Sometimes I think of them when I summon my ice. The idea that they're so far away now…"

Elsa sighed. Ever since Anna's accident and up until they passed away, her relationship with her parents had always been strained. Not conflictual nor animose, but stiff nonetheless. One more regret that was buried at sea with them.

She threw a glance at the forest around and realized that they had almost reached their destination when she caught the sight of the opposing bank of the fjord.

"We're here," she notified as she straightened her back.

The panorama was as magnificent as she remembered it and somewhat raised her spirits. The fresh whiff of the western sea rippled through her platinum locks and the crisp marine puff filled her lungs. Arendelle lay and sprawled in the fjord below like it had stood for as long as time went back, beautiful as it had always been. The castle marked its center, its spire flying high.

"The kingdom looks incredible from up here," Garret mused, voicing her thoughts.

Elsa heaved a longing sigh but quickly jumped at the occasion to tease him—an activity she was starting to find very entertaining. "Does that mean it looks horrendous from ground-level?"

Garret tensed up in a way that almost made her burst out laughing on the spot. However, as soon as he peeked at her playful air, he sealed his eyelids in comprehension. "Why do I have to say things out loud?"

"You almost took me seriously," Elsa said with a quick giggle as her hand unconsciously lifted to her mouth.

"The contrary would have been a bit more embarrassing. For someone so noble, you do seem to enjoy teasing a whole lot, excellency."

Elsa brought her hand down. "Just the people who make the best faces."

Garret chuckled and kneeled to the ground. He lifted a pensive hand to his chin as he examined every single inch of the terrain below them, muttering one or two undecipherable syllables now and then.

After five minutes of—almost—silent rumination, he smacked his knees, stood upright, and put his hands on his hips. "Now, for our window…"

Elsa narrowed her eyes. Which conclusion had he reached to voice such a question? She tried to understand his reasoning by following where his eyes had rested. She slowly crouched down and examined Arendelle's main avenue—too obvious, it would be guarded—the former and current ports—too difficult because of the water, and probably guarded— and the entrance to the barracks—guarded, too. She was no expert but if he was looking for a window of opportunity, all accesses were pretty much the same. And all looked dangerous.

The slope of the cliff was steep and open, she couldn't even understand how they would walk it down without being seen.

_What is he—Oh, no._

She suddenly realized why he had said that word. He was looking for an _actual_ window. She faced him, her heart pounding and her eyes wide.

"Garret?" she called.

"Hmm?" he answered, briefly interrupting his intense session of brainstorming.

"No."

"Oh." The small apologetic grin that appeared on his face was not a good sign. He nodded quickly. "Yes."

"Garret, no."

"Garret, _yes._ "

"No!"

"I'm afraid it's yes," he insisted with a small wince.

Elsa let her gaze go to her kingdom once again. "Is it?"

His eyebrow rose in begrudging acknowledgment with a light cocking of his head. "Yes…"

"Is there any other way?" she asked, her tone a mix of hopefulness and fearfulness.

"We have to go inside the castle without them seeing us coming. We can't sneak in, nor brute force in. The only way is to go in so fast they just can't catch us. We happen to have ourselves a nice downhill slide…" he explained as he vaguely mimicked the slope, his voice uncertain. "We're literally blasting inside like a cannonball. It'll be fun! Hopefully."

Elsa closed her eyes. "I can't believe we're about to do this."

"Neither can I. This is probably the craziest idea I've ever had."

"That's not very reassuring…"

"Here's how we'd go about it." Garret pointed with his finger. "I had that window in the east wing in mind. Is it something important, somewhere they would keep someone in?"

Elsa squinted her eyes. "That's my room. Would they have someone there?"

Garret chortled. "Oh, they would. What about the one just on its right, one level down?"

"I believe that's the library."

"That'll do. So, here's what I'm thinking. We…slide in. Do you know how to skate?"

"Everyone in Arendelle does."

"Great. So, I say we form a kind of toboggan. We can create a sheet of ice under our feet and a ramp at the very end."

"I—I can handle those. I just have to figure out which angle to give the ramp…"

Garret smiled. "Darn right, you can. I'll handle opening the window and the whole not-dying-on-the-way aspect of things. Once we're inside, we look for your family. Roger will probably be near them; we aim for him. We get him, and his men will either surrender or flee. Say what you want about him, but he's as smart as he is brutal. His lieutenant is also someone we should pay attention to—he's less sharp but more ruthless. We'll have to be ready for anything. I'll try to form a frontline; you stay behind and can intervene, but you protect yourself first and foremost. Don't hesitate to use your magic but be careful not to tire yourself too quickly. I'm not very aware of your limits, so we should conserve our strength."

Elsa quickly blinked. "You really have the oddest talent for plan exposition."

"Can't be bloody daft all the time, can I?"

"You're not daft!" she chastised.

He simply laughed. "Just a quip, majesty."

Elsa took a few breaths while eyeing for one last time the town that now appeared a lot farther down than it did a few moments ago. Her arms curled around her body once again. "Can I…have a minute to come to terms with all this?"

"Majesty," Garret called her eyes to him with a caring tone. "You take that minute, we don't jump." He then extended an open palm while giving her the widest smile she'd ever seen on his face. "Do you trust me?"

His tone, his expression, his hand—everything about him was oozing a feeling of security, a sense of protection that radiated around his body like an aura. She didn't know exactly why, but something inside her told her that everything would turn out okay. That she didn't need to worry as much. Grand Pabbie's words of warning rang in her head, but this time they rang hollow.

Did she _trust_ him?

"Yes, I do," she answered with a sincere smile. Her hand came to meet his in a gentle, careful movement; she didn't have to fight the idea of contact this time. He guided her up in one easy motion.

"Thank you," he said. He proceeded to unsling his bow from his back and bent forward. "Let's go. Hop on."

_Wait, what?_

"What does that mean?" Elsa asked with unhidden bewilderment.

"Climb on my back. Just…keep the more _sensitive_ parts in mind, please."

"Why would I climb on your back? Weren't we going to skate all the way?"

"It just occurred to me that a heavier body would go faster…"

Elsa was going to object, but his argument made too much sense for her to do so.

_He's not wrong…_

Garret shrugged. "I would've suggested lifting you in my arms, but I need them to shoot the window open."

"That…is a fair point," she admitted, and he smiled gratefully. She took long breaths to calm herself. They were indeed short on options and time.

"Put your left foot here, your right foot around here, and grab my shoulders," Garret explained, giving a quick tap on each of his body parts to make it clearer.

She followed his instructions to the letter while paying attention not to gore him with her heels, though her clumsy fumbling made her wonder if she could have been more awkward about it. She tried to ignore the shaking that invaded her limbs and instead focused on how strange his back felt against her. Were all men's backs this…uneven? And hard?

After a few 'Ows' and 'Ouches', she settled in place. Her legs were wrapped around his hips in an almost clownish way, and her arms had trouble circling his shoulders' full width.

"This is not a comfortable position."

"I know, excellency. It'll be over soon." His voice was calm, but she discerned a tinge of mischief that made her swell her cheeks in pouting.

"You're _enjoying_ this, aren—Ah!" Elsa yelped.

Interrupting her sentence, Garret stood to his full height and hoisted her up a bit too quickly for her taste.

"Sorry about that," he said, his tone sincere. "But, uh, majesty—" Garret turned his head to face her. Her hands had darted in reflex to the first thing they had found to keep her on her temporary perch, and they were now covering his eyes completely. "—I don't think I'll be able to aim like this," he added with a suppressed laugh.

"Oh," she said with a nervous chuckle. She cleared his field of view and shuffled back to her position. "I apologize as well."

The pair then took one long and simultaneous breath, their gaze facing Arendelle.

"You ready?" Garret asked, cocking his bow between his hands.

"As much as I can be," she answered as she tightened her shaky grasp around him a bit further.

"Hang tight!" he thundered, his feet powering an almost scary dart forward.

He sprinted relentlessly, every one of his steps detonating against the ground as he went, sending vibrations through her spine. He didn't even slow down before the gigantic crevasse they were going to jump over. Though she already had had the experience of falling off immense heights before, the sensation of her entire entrails coming up to greet her wasn't going to be the most pleasant. She braced herself and at the last possible moment, he propelled their two bodies into the air. Elsa's eyes closed as her heart bounced up to her throat and the wind's howl swooshed and crashed against her. Time seemed to freeze when they reached the apex of their curve, floating into the skies.

"Majestyyyyyy?!" Garret called, anxiousness starting to seep into his voice when gravity started to do her work and pull them down where they belonged.

_Oh!_

Her eyelids popped open and she yanked her right hand toward the ground in a panicked trance, the glittering of her magic appearing under them just in time for them to land with a reverberating rumble on a sheet of slippery ice that grew as fast as they went.

"Yeah!" Garret shouted enthusiastically as he jerked his torso forward.

The trees passed in an undefined blur around Elsa while the wind screamed in her ear. They narrowly evaded vague silhouettes on their way—were they houses? Rocks? Other trees? They passed one, then six, then she lost the count. Her eyes couldn't process anything that showed up in front of her before it became a distant afterimage that was now far behind by the time it had reached her brain. She couldn't fathom how Garret could see _anything_ —let alone dodge _everything_. Her hair fluttered against her back with each turn, mirroring the furious flapping of her dress. Her kingdom grew with every second, filling more and more of the space in front of them.

She held onto his body as tightly as her now sore fingers allowed, clamping his shoulder so hard she wondered how it wasn't breaking. Her eyes remained open the entire way, the air that blasted against them drawing the tears it created away from her face.

But she was not scared. She didn't know why, but she wasn't scared. Her heart raced as fast as she traversed the hill's slope, but she wasn't scared. Her legs shook, trembled and quivered but she wasn't scared. The ends of fingers in her left hand were probably white from how much she was squeezing them against Garret's torso, but she wasn't scared.

Had she not been completely stunned into silence by her stupefaction, she would have been crying her lungs out in exhilaration. Garret was a bit more vocal about his own excitement, letting out some shouts along the way. She didn't have the luxury of savoring the moment, however: the end of their slide was quickly approaching.

"Our launching thingy, majesty!" he eventually roared over the wind.

Quickly going over the rapid calculations she had made just before their jump, she visualized what they needed and projected her creation as precisely as she could. The transition from the smooth surface to the inclined ramp drew a gasp out of her from the brutal change in acceleration, and soon enough they were flying under the zenith sun once more.

Garret's body shifted and she felt his back's muscles clench even harder against her as he drew on his bow. The arrow flew and hit its mark just above the lock, the windows to the library slamming open from its power. He immediately took her hand away from him and spun around to bring his arms around her while facing away from the castle. Elsa summoned a cushioned blanket of snow on their landing zone and braced for the impact.

They touched ground with force, and Garret let out a few grunts. They progressively slowed down thanks to the cold mattress under them, but they had almost reached the library's door by the time the snow that gradually accumulated behind his back had stopped them completely. It had done a marvelous job amortizing their touchdown.

Elsa lifted her head away from the immaculate powder and shook it off her hair. Garret's face emerged from under her almost immediately, but he had evidently let some of it enter his mouth. He coughed the gleaming snow away and their gazes crossed. For a second there, they stared into each other's eyes without a word as they heavily panted. They then—in a surprisingly simultaneous burst—exploded into heartfelt laughter they immediately tried to restrain.

Garret threw his arms up and his head back with a victorious grin while Elsa let her forehead rest on his chest in relief as the chuckles rose and died down.

"We did it! I have no idea how, but we did it," he uttered as if he was still not realizing it. "If someone ever told me I'd one day get to stick a tactical landing between two library shelves, I think I would have asked for a day off."

Elsa threw a glance at the aisles around her. "Between 'Peace Treaties' and 'Arendellian Fauna and Flora', no less," she said.

"Only makes it better," he added with another laugh. Garret then brought his eyes to meet hers once more and lifted an open palm. "Well done, majesty."

She eagerly grinned and delicately gave a small tap on his hand with hers. "Well done, Garret."

They took a few moments to catch their breaths, not leaving one another's gaze. Elsa was lost for a bit in the moment and in the green that burned as bright as the sun's rays outside—she could also swear there was a streak of blue that pulsed in his irises—her hand refusing to move from where it had come to rest just above his heart. She was however brought back to the pressing matter of winning back her kingdom.

"We have to find Anna!" she said a bit too quickly, reminding him and herself at the same time. She stood up, dusted her robe, and dissolved the snow, extending a helping hand toward Garret which he gladly accepted.

The latter's strange gaze—it almost seemed disturbed—hardened as soon as he was on his feet. "That's right, we have to move. They're probably coming here as we speak if they heard us. Do you have any idea where they'd be keeping her?"

"I would suggest her roo—"

Her answer was interrupted by a blast cracking around the castle. A gunshot?

"What's that?" she asked in dismay. "It came from the courtyard…"

"Probably not good news," Garret answered simply, his air grave. "God-freaking-dammit. Let's get out of here."

He opened the library's door as stealthily as he could, Elsa closely following in his steps. She suppressed a small shout when he reeled his head back in one brutal movement.

"There's three of them in the corridor just outside on both sides, and they're coming here fast," he announced. "No gun in sight, but stay behind me." She nodded in acknowledgment, gulping nervously. "Just like yesterday," he added, his voice softer.

He then darted outwards, the three henchmen's surprised gasps echoing immediately. The sounds of clanging steel and strained grunts followed closely, and Elsa mustered all her courage to step out.

The first streak of brown and silver came from the left. Garret blocked the dagger blow aimed at her with the icy frame of his bow and pivoted, sending the weapon away from its owner's hands. The other two rushed in toward Garret. Elsa reflexively brought her hands up and formed a crystal sheet where their feet were going to land. The light tripping was enough to send both off course and gave enough time to Garret to smash the first's guts with two fast punches. He then dodged a left slash and countered with a swing of his bow that seemingly cracked a bone.

Unfortunately, the third mercenary had recovered and struck his back; Garret let out a pained groan. He drove his elbow into his adversary's chest and jumped away, breathless.

Meanwhile, the other two had focused their attention on Elsa after catching their breaths, slowly getting closer to her with malicious grins that made her insides turn. She took a step back, prepared to channel her ice at them—they, however, had to plunge to evade the frozen arrows that struck the walls beside them.

Garret dashed at her side and checked on her, his expression constrained by dolor, while the three mercenaries stood back to their feet. One of them threw a dagger to their now weaponless companion and unsheathed his sword.

Garret slid three arrows out of his quiver on his hip and stepped in front of her. "Here goes nothing."

Elsa's mind went back to Garret's words. _Be careful not to tire myself?_ He had said that, yet he was the one already breathless. Did he even care about whether _he_ lived or died?

The henchmen jumped at the same time with feral cries. Garret held his breath and pulled on his bow. Elsa closed her eyes and jerked her hands forward.

Silence was what she heard. She wasn't in pain, she wasn't hurt. She let her eyes flutter open and uttered a gasp. The mercenaries were stuck in the air, frozen in place by columns of her ice that reached up to their necks.

Garret eased the tension on the string and whistled lightly, clearly impressed. "Might I suggest…starting with this one next time?" he said with a small strained laugh and a cocked eyebrow.

"I'll…I'll try to keep that in mind," she responded. She wanted to scold him. He was being reckless. But this wasn't the time.

"Are you alright?"

"I believe I am. And you?"

"I'm standing. Let's go."

* * *

The night had been long. Anna usually never had trouble falling into Morpheus' arms—Kristoff always said she crushed that puny god with her full weight every single time—but the band of crazed witch-hunters that roamed around her castle was not really going to put her mind at ease.

The curtains were closed shut, yet the still slumbering fjord's bright light that traversed the thin layer of cloth was overwhelming the simple flicker of the red-topped candle that burned in the corner of her room, the traces of dust inside materializing its beams like a myriad of celestial strings.

She paced in front of her window, barely containing her angered growls. She wanted to run out, to stomp on the invaders. But the two men posted just outside her door made sure that she was incapable of any frivolity.

_Ugh, this is so frustrating!_

"You're going to dig a circle in that poor carpet," Kristoff said from the other side of the dimly lit chamber.

She glared at him. "This isn't really the time."

"You have to settle down, Anna. There isn't much we can do."

"We can't just stay here twiddling our thumbs!" she bellowed. "I'm not sitting around while those pricks wait in my own house to kill my own sister!"

"They have guns!"

"I have _fists_!"

"That's supposed to be a compelling argument?" Kristoff asked, shaking his head in disapproval. He stood up and came near her, trying to embrace her despite her small protests. She eventually gave in, a few sniffles springing out from her chest as her head gently came to rest atop his shoulder.

"I just can't bear her being alone, Kristoff," Anna moaned. "She's—She will—"

"She's strong, Anna. Way stronger than any of us."

"I know. But _she_ doesn't, she never seemed to see that strength in her…"

"There's Garret with her too, don't forget."

Anna sighed. "I don't know how helpful he can be…He seemed very off himself…"

"How would you know that?" Kristoff asked with a quick raise of his brows.

"Come on. I spent my entire life waiting for a girl that had the exact same eyes the day I finally saw her again and we know how that turned out. He was _definitely_ off."

"Maybe…But he's a fighter. A damn good one at that. They're safe as long as they stay together—and they're both clever enough to stay together."

Kristoff passed a hand through her hair. She melted under his caring caress with a satisfied sigh that seemed to blow the steam out of her brain. He may have appeared boorish and brutish, but her man knew how to calm her better than anyone—except maybe Elsa. She clasped her hand with his and met his gaze.

"I don't want to lose anyone else," she said, her eyes welling up with tears. Kristoff wiped them away as gently as he could; his fingers brushed her cheeks, caring and tender, warm against her cold skin. "You have the softest tough hands out there," she added with a weak smile. She perched on her toes to plant a thankful kiss on his lips.

"Perks of working with gloves," Kristoff replied with a grin of his own. "Ice tends to round the edges."

"That's what they say…"

A heavy knock thundered on the door, banging like a war drum. Jack walked into the room without waiting for any signal to enter.

"At least have some manners, psycho!" Anna spat the instant he set foot inside.

"Manners I leave to the people who care about them," Jack answered matter-of-factly. "Speaking of which, Roger asked for both of you. Let's go."

Anna and Kristoff stayed motionless, staring daggers at the intruder. Jack rolled his eyes, pulled a pistol, and closed in, his shadow towering over even Kristoff.

"I don't want to say it again."

 _Of course, he has to bring guns into the discussion. If I had one of those, he wouldn't be acting so mighty,_ Anna thought.

Jack led them in complete silence to the castle's courtyard, where Roger and his men stood vigilant alongside all those who happened to be inside the premises when the witch-hunters invaded. Anna could see Kai, Gerda, and Einar standing amidst the crowd. The latter's face was lightly puffy and reddened, and he was massaging his right side with a clear wince.

 _What's wrong with him?_ Anna thought with worry.

"Einar!" she called.

"Ah, Your Highness. And…whoever that guy is," Roger greeted with a broad smile. "Don't worry about your guard…much. My men found him sniffing around the armory this morning, and good old Jack here simply reminded him to stay calm. Please, take a seat, make yourself comfortable."

There were no chairs in sight; he had motioned toward the ground. Jack's enormous hands came to their shoulders and forced them down.

"Great. The crazy guy who wants to kill my sister can crack jokes," Anna sputtered in disdain.

"Ugh. _Burn the witch,_ highness. There's a nuance."

"Same difference to us," Kristoff said in anger. "It won't happen either way."

"I—" Roger sighed as he brought two fingers to his forehead. "I will not get into this with you again. I have gathered you here for a very specific purpose. Please, boys."

He motioned with his head nonchalantly. Two of his henchmen hurried at his side, throwing a heavy-looking linen bag at his feet with a thud, mere meters away from Anna.

"I believe your kingdom is in mourning. I understand that," Roger began as he paced around it with his arms in his back. "I too have lost people dear to me. Family."

Anna heard a strange noise coming from the bag. Were they…whimpers?

"I can picture the pain that you are currently going through. And I want you to know that I share it," the chief hunter continued. "He was a victim of an odious crime; one that demands reckoning, payment."

He grabbed the tip of the bag and pulled, revealing a gagged and tied Duke of Weselton. Anna gasped in surprise along with her fellow Arendellians.

"This man committed a cardinal sin," Roger boomed, his finger pointed at the trembling duke below him. "He let his Wrath consume him, and in a demonic rush, killed a creature of God. I am, of course, extremely saddened that he performed this atrocity under my watch. I could have prevented this tragedy without the intervention of the Armored Demon. The weight of this failure I will shoulder for the rest of my days. Just like you endured the torments of the Snow Queen, your compatriot suffered a tragic fate because of sorcery I couldn't stop. However! I will promise you this. Evil will be cleansed from your lands. I can and will right their wrongs."

The whisperings grew among the small crowd, but Anna was the only one to clamor. "Elsa is no evil! Neither is Garret!"

"You say that even when you witnessed how destructive she was to your own land not a year ago?"

Anna didn't want to hear his words. "She fixed it!"

"And what if she doesn't next time? Are you to live under her whims, fearing her next outburst? Waiting for her to repair what wouldn't have been broken without her? As for him, I'm sure he kept his atrocities to himself. I lost someone to that Demon. And an entire village perished because of him."

The whispers gained in intensity, more insistent and shocked—but Anna simply glared, her nerves on edge. "I don't think you care much about me interrupting your pretty monologue. Keep talking. We'll keep not believing."

Roger sighed once again. "I will snap you out of the sortilege you suffer. In the meantime, I offer you balance. A life, for a life." He then seemed to perk up at something only he could hear, a wide grin spreading across his face. "And exactly on time, too."

The duke's eyes were shining with tears, his entire body quivering like a leaf. Anna had little sympathy to spare for him, but she still sensed a swell of pity overtake her mind at the miserable spectacle before her.

"I bring you atonement. I bring you…justice" Roger stated, his words final. He took his firearm out of its holster, cocked its hammer, took aim, and fired.

The gulf of blaze and flame made Anna jump on her spot, and she involuntarily let out a piercing scream that melded with the small assembly's cries. The brilliant flash imprinted on her retina, the smell of burnt powder scorched her nose, the impact of the bullet banged against her eardrums.

Dead silence fell over the crowd as the duke's stiffened arms met the cold ground. Anna's hands had shot up to her mouth in horror. Her first thoughts went to the children who had had to witness such a display.

Roger reloaded, put his gun away, and gestured for his men to come closer. They hurriedly stepped in and lifted the body away from the courtyard, only leaving a bloodied trail behind.

"And to further demonstrate my willingness to help you, I make an oath to you. I will do my best to purge the two of them," he then said, his grandiloquence betraying his own pride of what he probably thought was a _favor_ he was doing them. "I had planned to simply shoot the Demon asunder, but I can see his influence has gotten to you as well. To lift it, I will have to burn him too. You will be liberated. The Snow Queen will be no more. The Armored Demon will be no more. The curse upon this country will be lifted."

Kai slowly rose from his place as all eyes were drawn to him. "You will not succeed. I've heard of men like you. They never succeed."

Roger lifted an eyebrow and cocked his head. "Oh. The chamberlain. And what extraordinarily tantalizing secret life experience got you to that conclusion?"

"I don't need experience. Just a bit of strength of belief. You wish to have us think she is a monster, yet you shoot one of yours without trial and hold an entire kingdom hostage? My queen— _our_ queen—is twice the human you'll ever be. And if she chose to let Garret into Arendelle, that's good enough for me."

Anna followed him up, bolstered by his words. "We both know she's coming for you. And we'll stand by her. You want her? You go through us."

Kristoff stood as well. "She'll have us all."

Einar was next. "Even after my last breath."

Then it was Gerda, Oaken, Greta, the Ljorns, the Trogsons, the Guard, the old couple she never asked the name of… And one by one, Arendelle rose in defiance.

"I have been confronted with lost peoples who think their monsters to be their saviors," Roger said, his gaze hard and his confidence unwavering. He aimed at Kai with his firearm. "Fortunately for all of us, I'll get a chance to honor my oath and this will all be over very soon. I will not, however, tolerate impious insubordination. I will have to take your hand for that."

"You're only half-right."

This wasn't a voice she was expecting to hear so soon. Anna whirled her head to the great hall's gate. Her heart leaped when she caught sight of her sister standing in the door frame, her eyes blazing and her hands steaming, the blue shimmer of her magic swirling around her like a storm.

"This will indeed be over very soon."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hope you enjoyed this one! Thank you Grand_Paladin for reviewing this chapter!
> 
> Gosh darn, already past 85k... The story wasn't supposed to be much longer than 70k when I first planned it lmao.
> 
> Four (or maybe five depending on separation) chapters to go for this first arc, so this is the start of the endgame; I'll give you more detail on what is coming when we're done with it. Thank you all for reading, commenting, and sticking through, I am eternally grateful and hope you'll like what's next!
> 
> As usual, anything you want to share with me I welcome with open arms!
> 
> Next chapter's theme is One Last Battle by Edgar Hopp, on YouTube too.
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	15. Armor

"Hello, hello!"

The brute's pure white smile was sickening. He looked too serene for someone who had an angry ice wielder in front of him.

"I'll give you one chance of surrendering," Elsa said. She stepped forward and stopped when the entire assembly was behind her. She could protect them easily with her ice that way.

Jack and Roger did not move.

_Why is he still standing his ground?_

Roger laughed. "I'm glad. You came by a lot earlier than I thought."

"I'm not in the mood for jokes. Surrender."

_Does he find me intimidating at all?_

"Oh, but this is in all seriousness. Tell me. Where is the Demon?"

_He doesn't even bother to use his name._

"Why would I tell you that?"

"Because I'm sure you understand. You may not mean harm, but he did."

Elsa quickly scanned the courtyard. There were twenty of them, deployed everywhere around her. Most of them were already in her back, leaving only the two leaders and four goons in front of her. She had to show them how determined she was.

Now, she only had to wait for the signal. Which was running a bit late.

"He pretends like he is this innocent victim of fate, cursed with power. But I saw who he is, saw what he did," Roger continued. "While I truly regret what I'll do to you, I do not what I'll do to him. And if he thinks he can buy his humanity back by protecting the girl—"

"Here's where you're wrong…"

_There it is._

She slammed her right foot on the ground; her ice rushed from the point of impact in a frenzied dash and coursed towards the mercenaries behind her. Before any of them could act and dart away, their legs were glued to the ground. The ice climbed up their bodies and firmly pinned them in place.

In the meantime, five frozen arrows whistled and struck the few she couldn't reach, knocking their weapons away. Roger and Jack dodged to their sides, leaving only the steaming ends of the projectiles where they had been standing.

Garret landed behind them with a crushing thud and lifted his bow with two more arrows drawn. "The girl doesn't need protection."

Elsa allowed herself a cocky smile. Starting with that was indeed more efficient.

"Surrender," she repeated.

Roger's wide eyes betrayed something she'd hoped she would see. Surprise. It didn't last long, however. The surprise was quickly replaced by a more focused intent.

"Jack!"

His lieutenant bolted from behind him towards Garret. The latter released his arrows. The first hit Jack's shoulder, the second was deflected by the leather cuirass on his chest. Neither of the two seemed to daunt him. He slammed into Garret with the full force of a bull and brutally pressed him against the rampart. All Arendelle winced and gasped at the resonating crash's echo.

Elsa and Roger followed them both, but the witch hunter had already cocked his firearm and aimed at her. Anna bolted to her feet, followed by Kristoff and all the guards present.

"Stop! All of you! Or I swear I'll shoot her where she stands," Roger shouted. "I said I would try to purify them, but if you continue, I'll choose the easy way."

Under the sights of a gun, everyone had no choice but to obey. Behind her, Elsa heard the rustle of several boots. The four non-frozen mercenaries were back, their weapons in hand.

Jack broke off the arrow embedded in his shoulder. "You should aim for the legs next time," he snarled as he pushed his forearm harder against Garret's throat. The 'Demon' spluttered, struggling to breathe. His injured side was probably pinned hard against the wall.

"Ease off, Jack," Roger said as he walked closer, his gun still facing Elsa. "I need him able to speak. And I swore I'd purify him." The gigantic man took a step back but kept his frying pan of a hand over Garret's neck. "Though you're starting to be more trouble than your death will be worth, Demon."

"I like to play hard to get," he hardly uttered.

"I'll miss that sarcasm of yours when you're gone. But before all that, I have a few questions for you. First of all, do these people know what you've done?"

Garret threw his gaze toward Elsa. "They do."

Roger seemed to catch the fleeting glance they exchanged. "Allow me to doubt that. Snow Queen. Did he tell you about my brother? Did he tell you about Liam the Witch-Hunter?"

"He told me enough to know that he's someone I would despise profoundly," Elsa gnarled.

" _Was_ , dear. Was. This bastard here killed him. Didn't give him a chance to defend himself. He killed him in his home, and I was there to see it. I saw this one's armor face to face, and then the body."

Elsa didn't know what to make of that piece of information. She had theorized some probable scenarios, but none had gone that far. Had he truly done it?

Jack punched his captive's gut, drawing a breathless gasp. "Don't move."

"Liam came to me when I was young, told me of his mission, asked me to join him," Roger continued. "I refused. Witches could not exist, I thought; they were products of dark times' obscurantism. Instead, I worked for my country, joined the army. And when I returned to his bloodied carcass and a devil of ice standing before it, I knew I had been wrong. I must thank the Lord for you, Demon. You showed me his way was the righteous one. You showed me his mission was necessary. You made me _believe._ Tell her. Tell her you did it. Make her believe, as you made me. _"_

She crossed Garret's eyes once more; he stared at her with vigor, the fire in his gaze denying Roger's claim. Her heart believed him. Was it right to do so?

Elsa trusted Garret. They would sort that out later.

"Your belief—is as pretentious as it's dumb," Garret said.

Roger's face turned red. "You will SHUT UP!" He pivoted and fired his gun into Garret's leg without warning. The sound of the gunshot hung in the air. No one reacted. Not even Garret.

Elsa stared limply into the hole in his pants. The impact still hadn't registered. And when it finally did, something told her not to panic. Roger had fired into his left leg. _Lower_ left leg.

She took the opportunity. Roger was focused on something else. Elsa threw her hand and her magic. A block of crystal materialized between the hunters and Garret, pushing Jack away. Behind her, Anna had jumped on the remaining mercenaries, followed by whoever was close enough, driving them to the exterior corner.

She wanted to summon more of her ice, but exhaustion was beginning to make itself heard all around her body.

Garret summoned a spear and deflected another gunshot that had targeted his other leg. He jumped, aiming for Roger.

The latter dashed to the right to escape the frozen tip of the spear and reached inside his coat. This new gun was different. He fired it to the sky, a ball of red light and flame detonating several feet up.

The wall exploded into steaming fragments of burning stone. Elsa reflexively brought her arms up in defense; hopefully, her ice would follow her movement with grace and power. Garret jumped in as well, darting forward to slam the base of the shattered surface with his fist. Ice sprang from ground and sky, twirling around the countless shards and sharp pebbles flying around. A mix of dust and vapor projected in all directions, covering the courtyard in a thick veil of heavy mist that slowly rose to graze the castle's higher levels.

Arendelle's people coughed the cloud away, the sound of clearing throats the only way Elsa could still know there were people around her. The veil dissipated after a few moments as she waved her hands before her face, using her right arm to cover her eyes from the potentially dangerous fog.

Beyond the smog of undefined silhouettes, the entrance to Arendelle Castle was completely blocked by large chunks of satin broken rock. And behind the crushed obstacle, she could discern the shapes of Hopkin's Blessed fleeing into the hills in a quick and trained sprint. They were too far for anything she could throw at them to reach them that wouldn't be endangering everyone around her. She now mastered her powers a lot better than the previous year but attempting something at such distance was still something she had to work on.

An enormous wave of solid ice took most of the space at her right, where the explosion had been contained in a frozen blast of spikes and rock.

She sighed audibly. Garret had been right.

_That Roger is annoying. And dangerous._

But at least now he was pinned against the fjord. They had to go after him.

Her hands clung to her dress in an almost painful grip. Only then did she realize how much they were shaking. She laid them before her eyes, taking a few seconds to calm her racing heart. The trembling diminished, but the extremities of her fingers still leaked out some steam.

The gloom settled with some rattles right and left, the view clearing progressively. Elsa threw her gaze all around her, first on Anna and Kristoff, then on her people, her castle and her home. A light wince brought her attention to her left.

Garret stood to his feet with a hand on his back. The injury was taking its toll on his stamina. The soldier then checked on his right hand with a curious scowl before coming to his left leg with a fleeting shift of his glance, examining in a sweep the hole created by that bullet. He passed his hand over the gaping opening; his ice crackled and crinkled, turning inside out like a frozen kaleidoscope until the mortal pellet of powder and metal was ejected. He carelessly flicked it away from him and closed the hole as if nothing had happened. The small projectile dinged against the ground, its ringing echoing against her ears and snapping her out of her silent observation. Her hands started shaking once again, but this time it wasn't adrenaline pulsing through her veins, pushed into every inch of her body by her speeding heart. It wasn't fear either. Nor worry. Was it anger? No, she'd felt that one plenty when facing Hans before sending him back home tangled in shame and iron. It was very similar to that. Familiar.

The questioning in her mind she didn't really stop to contemplate much further. Her feet had already started moving on their own. She registered her stomping and the loud clicking of her heels someplace in her head but didn't act on it. Her vision and entire being were concentrated on one thing. Or rather one person.

_How can he?_

Her knuckles tightened without asking her first. Garret noticed her coming and flashed her a relieved smile. Relieved, but still sad. And then, she understood what she was feeling. Frustration.

_How can he not see it?_

"There," he said in his cheerful tone that she could now understand was barely a façade. Only now did she see the slight arch at the corners of his lips, the absence of creases around his eyes. That's how she always knew his smile was sad. "You have your castle back. We still must go after them, but that's one less thing to worry about."

She considered slapping him. Very seriously. But it wasn't her goal. She didn't want to be that person. The hard way did not work. Her thirteen years alone had taught her that. Which made the restraint she exerted herself to display all the more frustrating.

She ignored his sentence and did not stop until her face was mere inches away from his. Her right hand dashed up and came to pinch his cheek.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Garret yelped. The pale tint immediately gave way to a reddening halo around her nails. She twisted a bit more and finally let his cheek go. He reeled back, putting his own hand over the—surely sorely painful—side of his face. "Ouch, that hurt! What is this all about?"

Elsa shot her gaze behind her with a suppressed grunt and pointed to where he had been held a few seconds ago.

"What was _that_ all about?" she fired back, her finger then coming towards his ice prosthesis.

Garret was stunned into silence. He stared limply into her eyes, not answering her question. He turned to Anna and Kristoff and lifted a hand. "Umm. Little help?"

Elsa followed him and for the first time in her life, gave an unspoken order to her family.

_Don't._

"You're on your own, buddy," Kristoff answered.

"Now you know what it feels like, sis'" Anna added with a shrug.

"No arrow or ice leg is getting you out of this one," Elsa continued as soon as she focused back on him, her hands now on her hips. By the sounds of it, she was barely containing the tremor in her voice, even though she was working hard at it. "You could have been killed by that bullet! What if he had shot a bit further up? What if he had chosen the other leg?"

Garret's expression hardened. "He didn't."

"What if he had? We can't just decide that everything's okay because everything turned out okay."

"It was that or let you take the bullet."

"No, it wasn't! You could have just shut it and he wouldn't have shot anything."

"You don't know him."

"I'm starting to know _you._ " Garret slightly perked up. The green flare of the sun's rays bouncing on his iris met her scowl. "I know you wanted to bring the attention to yourself. I know you don't care what happens to you. I would be blind not to see it. And I won't let you. I _refuse_ to let you." The warm fuzzing in her eyes told her that her tears had started climbing without her consent. Had her body developed its own will and now decided it would be doing everything by itself? "Don't tell me that wasn't your intention. I've been in those shoes before. It won't work on me."

His head dropped low. He couldn't even look her in the eye now. If that wasn't an admission of guilt, she didn't know what was.

"You're not expendable. And I hate that you think you are," Elsa concluded.

She stormed past him. Any longer and it would have been impossible to contain the anger. She wasn't going to blame him. How could she?

_I know what it feels like._

And that simple fact probably made her the only person who shouldn't be scolding him. But after everything, seeing him so obviously ready to throw his life away… She thought her talking with him had made him aware that he was worth the trouble.

Elsa would have a long discussion with him afterward. She blinked her tears back and stopped before Einar.

"Are you all right, Captain?" she asked in worry. He was still clutching his abdomen, the mark of numerous hits still very acutely showing on his body.

"I am, majesty. I'll—I'll just need a few minutes and I'll be able to lead the Guard in pursu—"

He couldn't finish his sentence—he coughed violently, a pang of excruciating pain surging through him.

"No, you're not," she soothed with calm. Greta was already at his side, inspecting his injuries. "Please, take care of anyone who would need it. I'll take a few men and chase those scoundrels down or out of this country."

She stood back up, and she somehow knew who was standing behind her.

"You're right," he said.

She built up a long breath and sighed. "I know."

"And I apologize."

Elsa smiled to the ground. Maybe the pinching had been worth the while. She faced him, and the fire in his eyes was back, just like that same morning. Just like the day before, in the cavern. Just like when he laughed. _Actually_ laughed. He needed reminders too.

"I accept your apology. If you promise never to pull something like that again," she said. An idea sprang into her mind. "Or better yet, give me an oath."

He grinned. There it was.

"We'll… talk about that once we're done with this mess. They're not going to stay close very long, and if we don't catch them now, they'll eventually come back with more men, more equipment, more everything. We have to move, and quickly. Go have a word with your family, I'll gather the men and have them ready to go."

Elsa let her shoulders relax and linked her hands. "Thank you, Garret." She walked past him once more—a lot less angrily this time—and stopped a few steps away. "Just a few questions."

"Of course."

"Why were you late?"

"I came across Olaf. Sent him on a little mission for me. We'll see if it pans out."

"Okay." The other one she debated whether she wanted to ask. "Did you do it? What he said?"

The answer came after a moment of silence. "I was there. But I didn't do it."

Somehow, she didn't even doubt that he would say that. She asked because her brain wouldn't stop pestering her otherwise, but her heart knew. She trusted him. And to be honest, it felt good.

Anna was waiting, her arms wide open as she hopped on her spot, her face brimming with clearly repressed tears. Elsa fell into her arms and held onto her as tightly as she could. She quickly hugged Kristoff too and the three shared a laugh. Sometimes words weren't half as necessary as a good laugh.

"Those were some theatrics," Anna said as she squared her shoulders and wiped her cheeks. " _You're only half-right._ Badass-Elsa is now my second favorite Elsa."

"What's the first?"

Her sister lifted a finger to her chin. "Probably Sick-Elsa. You were so cute. Or Chocolate-Elsa. The things you do with your nose when you eat that thing… Oh wait! I still have to see Properly-Drunk-Elsa."

"And you're gonna wait a while," Kristoff whispered.

"Yeah, to my great disappointment. But anyway. When are we moving?"

"Mo–Moving? You're not moving. You're staying here," Elsa said. Anna opened her mouth, her brows noticeably furrowing by the second. "You promised!" she added with finality before a single word could come out of her sister.

The young princess stopped right in her tracks. She snapped her fingers and kicked the ground. "I did. But this is not unnecessary danger!" she exclaimed as she perked up. "You'll need every hand you can get."

Elsa shook her head, but she still beamed with a proud smile. "We'll be fine. I'm taking most of the Guard and Garret. That should be enough for five or six people. And Arendelle will need you here. They'll need someone like you."

Anna was impulsive, but Elsa knew her sister was among the most intelligent people of her kingdom. She knew the importance of strong leadership, especially after such mayhem. Kristoff lifted his hand to her shoulder and gave a supportive squeeze.

"Don't do anything I would do," Anna finally said with a wink that was very obviously less overjoyed than usual. "Oh, come back here," she added almost immediately, dragging Elsa into another rib-crushing hug.

_She kept her good nature as an anchor. Good. That's my little sister._

"On a related topic," Anna resumed, her voice taking a more apprehensive tone as she released her. "Is Garret okay?"

Elsa turned back to throw a glance towards the man, who was busy speaking with half-a-dozen guards. "He's…He's going to be. Hopefully."

"Well, he did certainly receive one heck of an earful."

"I know right," Kristoff mused. "I don't think I've ever seen you so angry, Elsa."

_Oh. Everybody saw that._

She probably hadn't had to scold him in front of the entire kingdom just after an episode of very vivid destruction. Had she?

"But I do agree with you, though," Anna said. "He was reckless. I'm happy you could make him understand that."

Elsa caressed her own forearm in thought. "I certainly do hope he did." Anna silently scanned her, her eyebrow lifting ever so slightly. "What?"

"Nothing. Just remind me that we have to talk after all this."

"Talk about what?"

"Majesty?" Garret declared from behind as he got close, interrupting the sisters. "The men are equipped and ready."

_It'll have to wait._

"Very well."

"Garret," Anna called. She stepped in, and the poor man braced himself for what he probably thought was another scolding. Instead, she just grinned and brought her arms around him. "Don't worry, I'm not in a pinching mood."

"That's not going away anytime soon, is it?" Elsa sighed.

"No, it's not," Anna replied as she pulled away from Garret with a wide grin. "Please come back?" she then demanded.

Garret swiftly glanced at Kristoff with whom he exchanged a quick nod before returning to her. "I'll do my best."

"And take care of her for me."

He met Elsa's eyes. "I'll be with her."

* * *

Anna waved from inside the castle, her little hand growing smaller with each step. The group exited the town's main avenue quickly and advanced into the more mountainous territory that encircled Arendelle. Elsa was surrounded by guards, Garret walking before her while trappers constituted the foremost front.

While she wasn't the biggest fan of being the most protected, Einar made it clear early on that it was either that or staying back.

"This is it," Garret said.

"It is indeed."

"Ready to get this over with?"

"As much as I can."

She wasn't anxious? She _should_ be anxious. But she wasn't.

Garret looked at her over his shoulder, his worry plain to see. "Everything's going to be fine," he said.

_Irony, you are a cruel mistress._

"I know. Actually, I'm a lot more serene about all this than I thought I'd be. I'd wager it is no small part due to our group: we have some of Arendelle's best men and a master of ice."

"That's very nice, but I wouldn't call myself a mast—"

"Also, you."

Garret chortled after a moment of silent confusion. "Bloody hell, I walked right into that one. I'm very glad to see I'm your joke recipient when in a potentially dangerous situation."

"Everybody copes in their own way. And you were late."

"When do _I_ get to cope?"

"Nobody said you couldn't tease me."

"In front of twenty men who probably swore they'd defend your honor with their life?"

"There is a time for and a time against. Royal teachings and all that."

"That I can very clearly see, excellency." He stayed mute for a few moments while she giggled before coming up to her and speaking so low that only she could hear. "How… How did you get rid of it?"

He didn't have to specify what he was talking about.

"I didn't," she replied honestly. "I work on it every day. All I want is for you to know that it is possible."

Garret kept his eyes on her for a few more seconds, and without another word, got back to his position a couple feet away. They walked in silence, the trappers at the very front following a trail they described as esoteric at best.

"This is weird," one of them announced in whispers. "Are they supposed to be this good at wiping their footsteps?"

"I'm just happy that we have footsteps for now," Garret answered just as low. "When they're so few they're very hard to catch."

"I can see that," the trapper said. "But to be completely fair they made some mistakes here and there. Haste, surely. I think we can keep it alive for a bit."

The hills were now giving way to a thicker wood that Elsa had never traversed. The shadow of pearly leaves passed over her head as the light and hushed crunches of the troop's boots meeting the mix of grass and mud under their feet resonated louder and louder.

_Are they going to hear us?_

If the much more qualified people around her were doing as much noise, she guessed it would be alright.

On the other side of the forest she knew was the southern bank of the Arenfjord, from where most foreign ships came by to dock their hulls at her kingdom's port. The waters were shallow, but she was told the absence of rocailles and the warm current under the sea made it a very popular corridor.

"There's a broken branch, here," the head-trapper warned as she lifted her hand to stop the procession. "I think we're coming close."

Garret narrowed his eyes. "Already? We've only been walking for half an hour."

Elsa never liked it when Garret was surprised. For all the flustering around her and the general dorkiness she was starting to become fond of, he always seemed to know what to expect in serious matters; that made the situations where his expectations were subverted the ones that struck the most doubt into her heart.

"They also left powder traces and a cartridge a while ago."

"That is what I would call weird. They need every single ammunition they can get."

"We're gonna know real quick anyway. We're coming into a cliff right now. If the trail was good, they had no other place to go. We should get ready."

Garret nocked an arrow on his frozen bow, the guards unsheathed their swords.

Elsa gulped with difficulty. The serenity had started fading away way earlier, but the relative emotional void was quickly being replaced by stark apprehension. Her hands charged with vibrating magic, the breath of winter englobing her arms in its gentle grasp.

_Here be trouble._

The cliff was indeed very close. The dense vegetation etiolated out as they advanced, leaving the view of a calm ocean to deploy under the sun.

No traces of anyone though. Or maybe there were? Elsa was far from an expert in tracking.

Garret threw worried looks all around. The guards didn't seem much more comfortable.

"They managed to get out of here," the trapper said as she examined the last traces.

"I don't think they came through here at all," Garret replied. "They sent one man to throw us off their scent. They made us believe they made mistakes to bring us here. Smart bastards."

"Then where's that single man? I'd rather see one in prison than no one at all."

Garret peeked over the edge. Elsa strode to his side and followed his gaze. There was only a thin strip of land that ran alongside the coast underneath, everything else was steady and clear water. Under any other circumstances, the sound of the seagulls and the breaking waves would have been calming. Now they only exacerbated her nervousness.

"There's nothing under there," Garret started. "We should probably head back to the kingdom and send searching parties fro—"

The end of his sentence was swallowed by the deafening crack of an explosion that made her heart jump to her throat. The dim of bursting stone banged in the open, bashing back and forth between the tall mountain peaks behind them. Garret's eyes grew larger, and he knelt down. No, he wasn't kneeling. Why was he going down?

The ground under his feet fractured and opened. The platform he had been standing on had vanished. Elsa barely had time to register the surprised gasp that she uttered herself before he had disappeared under the rocky border.

Her legs pushed her forward. Her hand flew toward him on reflex. She stayed suspended in the air before him, reaching but not quite touching. The call for her magic came right after. But nothing followed. Her eyes drifted to her forearm. She understood why.

A small dart she had already seen before was embedded in her skin, leaking a diluted green liquid.

The ocean view rotated under her. Where was up? Where was down? She couldn't settle on a direction. Garret's silhouette was now above her. Or was it below? He came closer, and closer.

She didn't even feel the wind slap her. Her consciousness slipped away before she could determine where she was going to land, but there was one statement that kept nagging at her as her vision blurred.

_I'm so tired of falling._

* * *

The pointy ends of flashy green grass tickled her cheeks when she finally could open her eyes. Their extremities dangled back and forth with each of her breaths. The sweet smell was pleasant enough, a nap in the open was something she always wished she could try.

Elsa's head weighed heavily on her shoulders even though she was very obviously lying on the ground. The shady background's blurry details grew as her eye's lens adapted to the almost blinding light.

A white leathered boot appeared in her field of view. Then the ground level faded down—or did her head just lift?

Yes, that made a bit more sense. She could see the trees around her. Some grey silhouettes too. A bit of yellow that almost seemed white.

_Is this my hair? I have pretty hair._

The stream of platinum was pushed away by a gloved hand that went to her chin and gently lifted it up. A square of beige surrounded by black. Also black on the right corner. What a funny sight.

"I have to admit that plan of yours was the best course of action indeed," a deep voice said a bit farther back.

"I know. You say that every time," another one, closer, answered. "And every time you say I'm crazy."

"Don't pretend like this was the original plan all along."

"Using fireworks as a signal cannot be improvised."

"You're just lucky the ship was close enough."

"Luck is a part of prowess. By the way, how's the shoulder?"

"All right. Your head is already big as it is. Let's get this done and head back. The boys are waiting."

"The boys we have left."

_What was that in that voice? Sorrow?_

"We could always try to break into the kingdom and get them out."

"They knew what they signed up for. I won't ask those that stayed to risk their freedom for them, especially when the mission is a success. And us two won't cut it."

"Duly noted."

Her vision cleared. The eyepatch was something she'd already seen before. The memories came back to Elsa in a nauseating rush. The castle, the forest, the cliff, the fall. They were nowhere near the ocean now. Where were they?

_Where is Garret?_

She tried to call his name, but a layer of cloth was tightly wrapped around her mouth. Her hands were bound behind her, but even if they weren't, she couldn't move them. Her magic was still inactive.

The reality of what had happened drained her face of all color. They had been captured. How? They had won. Why was she now pinned against a tree?

"Ah, you're coming back to your senses," Roger said with a smile. He let her head fall and stood to his full height. "I really wish we could have handled this any differently, but you forced my hand. Just had to make sure you thought you were winning. Made you less careful. You should read Sun Tzu. The bastard knew what he was talking about. I did lose men in the process, but us getting rid of your sorcery will be more than enough reward in exchange for their sacrifice."

"We should probably hurry, Roger," Jack said from behind. "The boat can't stay close very long, and we're running the risk of someone bumping into us."

"You're right. But I will start with him."

"I thought you might say that. He's over there. Just give the word."

Her head refused to obey her, but her eyes still drifted up.

Elsa followed Jack's pointed finger. Garret was on his knees, attached to a tree with his head low. He had already taken a few hits. His shirt was torn open in some places; his ice prosthesis was naked to see. He looked like he was barely breathing.

Her muffled scream had little effect. She wanted to move. She _wanted_ to.

_Who is the darned thug that thought a paralytic serum would be a good idea?!_

Roger crouched in front of Garret and lifted his head much like had done to her.

"Not so twitchy now, huh, Demon?" He grabbed his hair and pulled him back, bringing himself nose to nose with him. "I will ask you one last time. Tell me you did it."

Garret's tired eyes stared blankly into his face. He did not pronounce a single word. Roger slapped him with the back of his hand.

"Tell. Me. You. Killed. Him," he hissed again, the venom in his voice as obvious as the marks on Garret's face.

The latter kept his mouth shut, his defiance visible in his gaze alone.

"You won't tell me? Then I'll tell you what he did. He entrusted this mission to me. He entrusted _his_ mission to me. This sacred burden I share with my men. I refused to believe him, and he died because of that. He gave me a purpose. And today, part of that purpose will be fulfilled with you burning to the ground." Roger then let go of his hair, letting Garret's head fall and collide with a thud on the tree bark behind it, and turned back. "I will give you a chance to fight. Conjure your armor. You do that, and I'll do you a favor you never gave him."

Nothing.

"DO IT!"

Once again, silence was his answer.

"Not even worth the spit I lost over this," Roger concluded, his eyebrow twitching in clear disappointment and anger. "Get the stake ready."

Elsa struggled as much as she could, but her arms remained numb. She abhorred the powerlessness. She disliked it. She hated it. She wanted to move, to run, to cry. None of it was going to happen.

Interrupting her thoughts, a low growl came from the other side of the small glade, where Garret was sitting.

"What of his mistakes?" he coughed. His voice had trouble rising above a murmur.

Roger's head whirled right back. "What?"

"What of your damned brother's mistakes?"

"He never made any. And even if he did, he was the only one ready to do what was necessary. His mistakes would weigh little compared to his accomplishments."

Garret's face took an unusual expression. Elsa had never seen it like that. Even at the brink of consciousness, she could recognize it. Fury.

"Weigh little, huh…One last question. Why di—didn't you paralyze me?"

The chief hunter bore a sickening smile. "I want you to feel it. Contrary to the Snow Queen, I want you to feel your flesh burning. I will do her the mercy of purifying her without pain. You, my friend, aren't getting that privilege. Do you know what the most painful way to die is?"

Garret coughed again. His single open eye stayed glued to the white-clad hunter. The flash of blue that sparkled inside it froze Elsa—as far as freezing an immobile person could get. "Burning."

"Exactly. Most people think drowning, but truth is, there is no greater punishment than the one of fire. That is why I am not paralyzing you."

"You should have."

The moment his words left his mouth, a powerful gust of wind erupted from Garret.

The continuous blast dragged Elsa while her hair flailed angrily against her. Being stuck to a tree allowed her to mostly stay in place. Garret snapped his chains open with ease, the ice that he had evidently created around them breaking into a myriad of crystals swept away by the mighty storm that emanated from him. His hands came to the ground. He closed a knuckle and struck.

"I'm tired, Roger."

His voice was calm, poised. It sounded gentle. Roger and Jack were projected back and clang to the soil, the few men with them hiding behind the trees around for protection. Some of them tried to go for the shot but their rifles were torn away from their hands by the sheer force of the gale.

"I'm tired of hiding."

Another strike. The storm gained in intensity. The ground around Garret was covered in growing spikes of crystal-clear ice.

"I'm tired of running."

One additional strike again. Among the glimmers and flashes, Garret stood to his feet. For a moment, the tempest quieted down, the spikes resorbed, and the grass bent back to its natural position.

"And above all, I'm tired of mourning."

The break of brilliance that followed was almost too much for Elsa's eyes.

The wind around him glowed white and started flowing upwards, forming a column of light that ascended to the skies. His hair was now a clear blonde not unlike her own, waving harmoniously with each of the rising blizzard's gales. The grass solidified into quasi perfect blades of ice, the ground under them becoming as reflective as a mirror.

The eyes inside the storm burned blue.

He was doing it.

He was letting go.

Elsa's heart filled with relief at the sight. He was becoming one with them, he knew they were his as much as he was theirs. The tears came up once again, and this time she made no effort to hold them.

_He's accepting them._

The column of icy wind exploded into a slew of shiny dust that stayed suspended around them. The white cloud raced away, leaving only a spectacle of immaculate snow above the trees. Roger and Jack shakily stood up. Garret held his head high, eyeing them with a focus that Elsa now recognized characterized his serious side.

"Well, that was ominous," Roger said.

"We should probably leave," Jack warned, anxiousness clear on his features.

Garret lifted one hand. The platinum of his hair and the blue of his eyes made him look completely different and almost scary. Elsa could also see that his skin had gotten even paler.

"Listen to your lieutenant, Roger," he thundered. Still calm, but with a menacing undertone.

"Wait," the hunter said.

Jack's very evident fear didn't prevent him from staying beside his chief. "This is bad, Roger. We can't fight him like that."

Roger's eyes narrowed. Elsa didn't like that look. "No, we can't. Can he, though?"

_What?_

He strode forward and came one foot away from Garret. "I think he would have blasted us a lot earlier if he could. Isn't that right, Demon?" The brilliant blue gaze in front of him shone with untamed wrath. "Take a step. Come on." Elsa's breath caught up in her throat, and her heart banged inside her chest with the force of a hammer. "Very well, I'll take the step." Roger walked closer yet. "Now, if I'm wrong, hit me," he continued as he tilted his head to the side, offering his cheek. "Hit me and get this over with."

He was going to hit him, Elsa was sure. Injure him. Perhaps even kill him. As much as she hated Roger, she didn't know whether she wanted to witness that. Whether she wanted Garret to live with that.

A tightened fist rose. She wanted to seal her eyes. Her paralysis forced her into watching nonetheless.

The fist descended and fractured the ice when it met the ground. Garret had fallen to his knees. The platinum blond vanished, the blue glow vaporized, and steam started hissing on his body. His mouth gaped open and the sound of ragged gasps reached Elsa.

His eyes closed. His legs trembled. His breaths quickened even more.

"That's what I thought," Roger stated, his wide grin showcasing his cocky pride. He drove his leg into Garret's gut, drawing a faint shout of hurt. His body collapsed on the still mirror-like soil.

Jack closed in as well and pummeled his lower back, a vicious hit that was punctuated by a louder and more wickedly pained howl. "You're nothing more than a monster."

Roger quickly ruffled his own raven hair back behind his head. "Fine, I'm getting this over with."

Hopkin's Blessed came around and planted a log of dry wood into the ground. Half of them then hoisted Garret's unmoving body up and bound him to the stake, while the others fussed around the base and crated a plinth of messy firewood, leaves and branches.

Something sank inside Elsa. Cold shivering that didn't come from the ice around her.

It had proven too much for him. And he was going to die because of that. Because she couldn't help him.

Every fiber of her body fought the paralysis. Her throat burned with silent screams, her eyes with unshed tears, her heart with forlorn anguish. Her fingers started answering, but she needed much more than just her fingers.

Garret stared down, the messy fringes of red hair hiding his face from Elsa's eyes.

She wanted to throw her ice at him, cover him in a protective cocoon of hard crystal. She wanted to run to his side and pry him away from their grasp with her bare hands. She wanted to find a way to somehow ease the pain that was going to tear through his body, just as she had hoped to quell the one that raged in his mind. At the very least, she wanted to call his name, to tell him she would remember him.

She could do none of that. He was going to die in front of her.

Roger lit a makeover torch he had sprung out of a satchel with two rocks and approached with dignified steps, savoring the moment. He lifted his hand high.

"Honorable members of the Blessed, I want you to know that this wouldn't have been possible without your hard work. I want you to take pride in your aid to this world and go back to your families as the heroes you are. Live your lives knowing that you cleansed your brethren of a greater evil, and stand ready, for the next call will come for us always."

He released the fire. The streak of golden and red fell and danced on its way. Sparkling and crackling, the blaze illuminated his face and the glowing seal on his coat.

She had been hopeless before. She saw that dying ember that was bringing the winds to a cold howl. Despair was now a dense fog that filled her veins. Heavy. Frigid.

Implacable.

" _Auspicium Melioris Aevi._ "

The sound of the breeze ran past her ear. Not a breeze. A whistle.

The torch disappeared. The flame was gone. Where was it?

The light now came from a tree, far behind the stake. A crossbow bolt had pinned the torch there. Garret lifted his head, a small smile on his lips. Elsa followed his gaze.

Behind her was an armored silhouette. The plates glowed in a way she had already seen. Brilliant and blue, the helmet bore a striking resemblance to a hawk.

An armor of ice.

Then, right next to it, another one. Taller, bigger. She saw a third, a bit behind. Then to the left, another two. Soon enough, she couldn't follow the count as they appeared one after the other.

One of them, the smaller one, came to Elsa and crouched beside her with a crackle of ice. She ignored her reflection on the visor and tried to discern a face inside.

"It's us."

She knew that voice.

"I promised and all that, but when I saw the ground freeze and those weird skates under my feet, I knew you were in trouble."

Despite the ethereal reverberation induced by the helmet, Elsa knew that voice.

"Good thing you sent that ice in the air or we would have had a lot more trouble finding you."

_Anna?_

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hope you enjoyed this one!
> 
> I am so very late and I apologize. Had a whole lot of work dumped on me these last few weeks, and I couldn't just ignore it.
> 
> At least now I have more time to write.
> 
> Next chapter's theme is a specific cover of Vuelie. The one by Froststudio Chambersonic titled exactly Frozen 2 -Vuelie(Into the Unknown/The Next Right Thing), on YouTube too.
> 
> See you next time,
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	16. Legion

The armor was heavy. Really heavy. The weight of the ice combined with the rough edges made it a very uncomfortable piece of…clothing? Would armor be considered clothing?

Anna pushed the distracting thoughts away. The column of light had first appeared in the middle of nowhere. Soon after, the ground had turned into a shiny rink, extending far beyond the limits of Arendelle's main town. The skates that popped under her feet were the last clue she needed to piece together the message her sister had sent: _Help._

Half of Arendelle had received a suit of icy protection. The newly formed armada almost immediately followed her lead, dashing through the forest at unthinkable speeds before they reached what they quickly realized was a set up for a pyre. Elsa was pinned to a tree, motionless, and Garret was hunched forward, with five white-wearing witch hunters surrounding him, flames raised high.

A crossbow bolt flew, the flame disappeared, and she darted next to her—surely paralyzed—sister.

"It's us. I promised and all that, but when I saw the ground freeze and those weird skates under my feet, I knew you were in trouble. Good thing you sent that ice in the air or we would have had a lot more trouble finding you."

The witch-hunters simply watched, stunned into silence. Now, the legion of armored ice silhouettes was surrounding _them_. Five against a few dozen. They shouldn't like those odds.

The white around them shone through the visor in front of her eyes. Despite the narrow opening, the myriad of facets allowed for a complete field of vision. She recognized Elsa's meticulous nature: each little screen handled one part of the image, like a bee's eyes.

Anna stood upright. "We gave you an opportunity to go." Her voice thundered among the trees. The reverb inside had been thought out well too. "We gave you an opportunity to get out of this." She barely even recognized herself. But he had tried to hurt Elsa. Her anger was boiling inside, sending pulses of fury that shook her from head to toes. "You still insisted to go after our own. But we don't let our own down."

Roger fired a bullet at her—she didn't even have the time to think about going for cover. Fortunately for her, it struck her armor's chest plate harmlessly and fell to the ground, not having penetrated more than the superficial layer.

_Thank the spirits for her magic._

Roger quickly scanned his immediate environment, noticing right away the sheer number of angular silhouettes that formed entire rows of identical suits of armor around him and his men. His hands were obviously trying to contain their shaking. They flew back, cocked his weapon again, and aimed it at Garret's head.

"A single one of you takes one step, he goes."

He was starting to get on her nerves with his threats. "You fire, there's an army of angry ice statues ready to strike."

At her words, the entire legion took a step forward. The collective thumping of their feet banged in the open. Roger's eyes grew larger, then narrowed in wrath.

"I thought you had at least some consideration for his life."

"I thought you had some consideration for yours."

It was a game of who would call the first bluff and Anna knew she wasn't at an advantage in those types of battles. She had to defuse the situation as soon as possible. She gave a fleeting glance behind her to check that Elsa was still where she was.

"Here's a prop—"

She was interrupted by the loud explosion of the gun firing. The startle almost didn't register when she whirled around to face him back. The firearm was lifted to the sky, the barrel still smoking black and hot smog. Roger was furious, she could see that on his face. But most importantly, Jack's hand was circled around his wrist, forcing him to aim upwards.

Only then did Anna fully comprehend.

_He called it first. He would have shot him._

"Let go of my hand," Roger warned in a hiss.

His lieutenant held strong, not letting his eyes off him. "Can't let you do that, Roger. Can't let you do that to yourself."

"The _mission_ first, Jack."

"This is suicide. They have ten times the men. You blow him, you go with him."

"I accept my own sacrifice."

Jack seemingly tightened his grasp around him and expertly snatched the gun away from him. "I don't." Roger stared at him blankly, a look of betrayal upon his features.

"You made a pledge to me. You made a pledge to him," he uttered, pure shock still visible under the layers of anger.

Jack looked down and threw the gun to the ground. "I'm not a perfect man," he said. "I won't let you die over this."

Anna saw a breach. And she jumped in. "Your crimes warrant a death penalty. But we will offer you safe conduct. In chains, but alive. If you surrender."

The men behind the trees, already weaponless, were on the ground by the end of her second sentence. Roger scoffed and lifted his hands up in exasperation.

"So, I was the only one ready to sacrifice anything. Why am I only half disappointed?"

He took a few steps back from Jack, the latter still keeping an attentive gaze on him. "We lost, Roger. This is witch territory. We couldn't have won against an entire country of them."

They had understood it that way.

 _Good,_ Anna thought. _That's good for us._

Kristoff came right behind her and whispered next to her ear. "The armors are starting to go."

She didn't lower her eyes, but Anna indeed sensed a faint kiss of wind just under her elbow—the ice was thinning away.

"You have no weapons and no escape. Surrender now," she urgently warned.

A quick ruffling from the side indicated that Elsa's foot had slightly stirred. She was gaining her freedom of movement back. From the corner of her eyes, she checked on Garret. He hadn't moved an inch.

"I won't," Roger answered immediately. He reached inside his coat and pulled that same strange-looking gun from the castle's courtyard. The gun that called fire from the skies. "I will accomplish my mission or die trying. You've seen what this does. The entire area will be vaporized. I see you, Jack. Don't come closer."

That was the opportunity Anna had been waiting for and thanked Garret and Einar so much for. "Wait! That'll kill your men!"

"Not if you let them go. You can save whoever you want except the Demon. Everyone else is free to go. Even the Queen. You have four seconds."

The armors were already as thin as a sheet of paper—they had been an incredible help and a means of pressure but weren't going to offer much protection. Anxiousness was seeping into the legion, and she knew it. But he wasn't getting it. She had to be more explicit.

"The cannons on the boat are rigged! Fire and the entire ship sinks!" she shouted.

Roger stopped dead, his finger already pushing half-way through the trigger. "What?"

Anna walked forward, her helmet already beginning to disintegrate from the little wind her movement created against her face. The cold came to gently graze her cheeks and tickle her nose, memory of a time so close yet long-past.

"Einar saw your used cannonballs in the armory yesterday. Completely fried but usable again, still solid. Only one type of cannons does that that he knows of. And they're ship-mounted," she explained.

Roger's hand faltered slightly, but he eventually kept it high, his gaze focused on her.

"He left one near the entrance and Garret saw it. He understood you had a ship. He sent someone to find it and rig them with small ice tourniquets. Something that would block the link between the powder chamber and the wadding. Any lighted fuse would detonate the cannon itself," Anna continued, stopping shortly before him. "That someone did as they were told, and they came to me."

Roger scoffed once again. "That is complete nonsense. How would this spy of yours find the ship? And how would they even approach the cannons without being seen?"

"Simple. They followed the trajectory of the cannonball you fired on the castle." Anna smiled and stepped aside. "And they were a talking, three-foot-high snowman."

Olaf appeared behind Kristoff's leg with a jovial wave. "Hello, meanie. Your boat is outside the fjord, behind the Engeløya. Very pretty green color."

"You can't see something you'd never expect," Anna continued. "We did the same mistake. We dismissed the idea the first time because you were too far, but a boat can travel a long distance in a week. Signal that fire, and it sinks."

"I…" Roger spluttered, his gaze still glued to where Olaf had popped out. For the first time, his confident demeanor was crumbling. It only lasted for a second, however. "I do not believe you."

The bluff was too big. It wouldn't work.

_It'll work._

"Drop your hands and surrender. Or fire that gun. Whether you believe or not is what decides for those lives. You choose," she said. The armor was still there, but she could now sense the gentle breeze over her entire body. It wouldn't last very long. "We do not wish to fight, nor see more bloodshed over this. But we'll fight whoever attacks us. We are the nation of Aren the First. Of the Snow Queen. We are the Ice Legion."

Another step forward.

She couldn't tremble, not at such a moment. She harnessed her thirteen years of lonely upbringing and for once, listened to what Elsa had told her was the single phrase that drove the most fear into her heart.

_Conceal, don't feel._

"This is Arendelle."

Roger scanned her for ten seconds that seemed to last a lifetime. Not a hair of hers she wanted to budge. Only her breathing kept her aware that she was a being of flesh and bone, able to move if she wanted to. The witch hunter then swept the glade with his eyes, stopping shortly on Jack's worried expression.

He could win if he fired that gun. But she hoped he still had a heart beating inside that chest. Garret and Elsa had given her the means to break through his will, she simply waited for that last light of humanity to shine.

"Come on, brother. We don't have to go like this," his lieutenant pleaded. "We cannot win this."

Her heart was going to explode. Every single pulse sent shivers down her spine, and if it wasn't for the literal coat of ice around her, she was sure sweat would have poured off her.

Roger examined his men once more, the conflict evident in his eyes. He settled on Jack, whose enormous silhouette was hunched in defeat. The two men shared one long glance, drilling into each other's souls.

Finally, in a slow motion that drew her fear to its climax, he let his hand fall down and the flare gun escape his fingers. The small device bounced and cracked against the ice, its last rebound hitting the moist ground as the mirror-like surface dissolved into heavy mist.

Anna breathed a long sigh and let the guards walk past her to apprehend him and his men—they opposed little resistance against their chains.

Roger faced up with closed eyes, a stray tear appearing on his cheek.

The entirety of the icy carapace around her disappeared, and if she was to believe the scurry of glitters and crystals that ran across her arms and above her head, the Ice Legion's suits had vanished too.

They had won.

She immediately turned back and darted towards Elsa, at whose side Kristoff was already kneeling. He got rid of the gag around her mouth and the rope tying her hands in her back, letting her breathe more comfortably. Anna hugged her close, keeping her tears at bay. She apparently couldn't move for the moment, but her voice was back somehow, though she visibly had trouble forming comprehensive words.

"Ga…"

"What is it, Elsa?"

" _Gar—Garret…_ "

Anna's head snapped to him so fast she wondered how she didn't break her own neck. She stood and ran at the poor man's side and put a finger below his nostrils. Nothing.

The color drained out of her face. "We have to take him back, NOW!"

* * *

For the first time, the door in front of him he couldn't break. Actually, he didn't even check whether he could, because he wouldn't.

He had spent the entire day alone with his thoughts, one of them circling back to him in an endless loop.

_An entire country of them._

Jack was right. They couldn't have won. It had been an impossible endeavor.

The shock still hadn't really waned. He didn't know where Jack and the others were, but he guessed they weren't very far. He had expected stone to sit on. Wood was a more comfortable alternative. Roger looked at his hands, linked by iron on his lap.

He had always seen them as two instruments of salvation. Sharp, precise, meticulous. Without a single ounce of hesitation. They had never flinched. Not one time. Until now.

He had been convinced he would be ready to sacrifice anything to accomplish his mission. He had believed that about himself for so long. Now, the feeling of emptiness inside almost made breathing difficult.

He hadn't been ready to sacrifice everything. There was one thing he wanted to keep. He had chosen his humanity. And it probably had been the wrong choice.

The crazed duke had given up his. The monsters he had served under had given up theirs. And he had feared to look at a mirror and finding them staring back.

He had failed. And now he only had his eyes to weep. Though even that he couldn't manage. He stared blankly into the wall in front of him, counting and recounting the cracks and the asperities.

He noted the sound of the metal door sliding open in his back. Three sets of boots. Heavy, armored. Not steel, though. Not clunky enough. Probably the leather-wearing guards. Spears in their hands—they really had to buy some guns.

And then a fourth set. That last one had heels. She was already on her feet—her body got rid of the serum a bit too fast for someone so small.

He didn't turn around. Why would he? So that the target that had escaped him could look him in the eye and laugh?

"Gloat if you have to," he said, his voice hoarse. "But quickly. It's already humiliating as it is."

"I'm not here to gloat," she said.

"Be careful. You'll light the castle on fire with that lightning strike."

She ignored his remark. "I'm here to answer your question."

"Why?"

"Because you seem convinced of something that is not true."

_I'm starting to see a pattern here._

"And how would you care about me?" he said.

"I do not care. I'm not doing this for you."

"Of course, you aren't. Then what is this so-searched-for answer, Snow Queen?"

"Garret didn't kill your brother."

Roger scoffed. "This takes guts to say for someone who wasn't even there. I saw him. I saw Liam's body. I saw the armor. You're defending the undefendable."

"I gave you an answer. Whether you believe me or not is your choice."

Choice, again. He hadn't been good at those recently. This witch was already starting to get on his nerves.

"That's easy to say. He lied to you. Seeing me probably reawakened some instincts. Go ask him again and see the truth in his eyes."

The Demon was what his name said he was. An abomination. A foul creature. He wasn't going to change his mind, especially not because another one of them pestered him.

"We…We didn't have a chance to talk."

"You tell me, then. If he didn't kill him, why didn't he say so? What was he doing there? Why was he overlooking a lifeless body?"

"You were holding him at gunpoint and against a literal stake. You seem to hold your brother in a higher regard than the atrocities he committed allow for."

"He did what no one was willing to do."

"He slew innocents. And even if they weren't—which is another debate entirely—he was barbaric and savage."

"Again, mighty statement for someone who never saw him."

"I did see him. I saw what he did."

"And by what miracle?"

"One I'm sure you would dismiss as sorcery. I _am_ a witch, after all. Barring even that, I saw what _you_ were ready to do."

He had to. For no one had seen the real threat. How could anyone be so blind?

"You are a danger. All of you. To all of us," he said.

"Not as much as using God as an excuse. At least have the courage to own your delirious craze and leave the beliefs to people who'd make good use of them."

_How dare she…_

His anger rose, but he contained it. There wasn't any point to it now. "You don't get to chastise me on what I was sent to do."

"I won't. I see it wouldn't be very fruitful. You honestly believe it. Unfortunately, honesty doesn't equal truth. Instead, I will tell you what I believe. I will protect my home and my family from men like you. If I must be a danger, I will. But I will choose who to be dangerous to. I'm fully aware that as everyone else, I am fallible. I will strive for that to interfere as little as possible."

Her words rang in his ear. He had heard them from Jack during a mission, so long ago. The only good thing he had kept from his military days. And again, a few hours before.

She very audibly sighed. Her shadow appeared in front of him—she had come closer.

"One last thing. You have something of his." She was speaking of the dagger. He had been offered one too. He had refused it. He hadn't deserved it. And that monster had just accepted it when he deserved it less. "We couldn't find it. Where is it?"

Roger shivered. The temperature had dropped significantly around him, the bite of cold creeping up his spine from the ground itself. Was that a threat? What she _perceived_ as a threat? He didn't care much. The dagger was barely a token. Not even worth its weight in copper. He hadn't bothered to keep it.

For what it was, they could search for it.

"I'm not aware of its location," he replied.

"That's too bad."

The cold came to his neck and the pain surged almost instantaneously. It wasn't very acute, just above a hard pinch. It didn't even warrant a reaction.

_What is she, a child?_

Her shadow slowly faded as her heels clicked away. Despite the very present disdain he felt for her—that had surprisingly dropped in intensity, he quickly found out—one thing didn't stop irking him.

"You didn't answer one question. Why was he there?" he asked.

The heels stopped. "Your brother burned his mother. She wasn't a witch."

He didn't want them to, but her words still nagged at him. "How do you know she wasn't?"

"My mother wasn't. She never had powers."

Emptiness, once again. It was starting to become annoying. She was now almost out of the room— 'cell' wasn't appropriate, if his albeit short time inside an Indian jail was anything to go by.

"Was the ship really rigged?" he asked. There had been a part of him that wanted to know. To understand he had made the right call. For his men, and for himself.

"You chose well," was all she said.

Cryptic. Either the cannons had been rigged indeed, or…

"I forbid you from feeling pity," Roger called, the trembling in his tone almost taking over.

"I'm not," she answered. "I'm sad. You are clearly a brilliant man. It's a shame. I wonder what you'd have become had you made other choices before this one."

There it was once more. The matter of his choices. There wasn't anything to do now but dwell on them.

The silence seemed louder than before. Now he could even hear the breaths of the guards, flowing through their tunics as they ground against leather to meet the colder exterior; the rhythm of the waves outside, thundering now against the walls under the cold night sky; her ice, gently resorbing from under his feet to where she was now standing.

"Inside the forest, not far from where that castle of yours was brought down," Roger said in a low voice. "But in exchange I want my men treated with dignity."

She pondered the answer for a few moments.

"Very well."

And then the door closed.

* * *

Elsa politely sent the guards back to the barracks. She felt like being alone for a little while. She simply walked, letting her shaking die down. Standing with him inside that cell had been terrifying, but she only realized it afterward.

The man was broken, had been tricked, and she had lied to him. She did feel pity.

She hugged herself tightly and made for where Garret was being tended to. Her stress had largely leveled down ever since she had recovered her ability to walk freely but she still worried. He had looked in bad shape. Had it been Roger's punches and kicks? He seemed he could talk fine even after those.

Was it his magic? She couldn't shake that possibility. It took a toll on her too, and it seemed it always devastated him a lot quicker than it did her.

She came across the corridor with all the royal portraits. The corridor where her father's image was plastered, between her grandfather's and a stone pillar. She passed a fleeting glance over its length.

At the very end, a slender silhouette. Anna was there, her hands behind her back, silently observing their father's portrait.

"What's he telling you?" Elsa asked as she stepped closer as lightly as she could.

"Nothing this time," Anna answered with a small laugh. "I'm just saying hello."

They shared a comfortable silence, gazing upon the threads of red and gold that had immortalized their father for the first time as a king.

"I thought the armors were yours," Anna said after a few seconds.

"No, they were his. I can't use magic under the serum's effect." She had her mind on him now, she could as well ask. "How…How is he?"

Greta had forbidden anyone to get inside the room while she worked, but she hoped her sister would have something for her.

Anna's gaze dropped to the ground. "She got out once. Whatever happened there took everything from him. She said he's lucky to be alive, especially since this is the second time he almost died in a few weeks. He'll be out for a bit, but he'll live."

An immense weight was lifted off Elsa's heart. Her breath escaped her chest in a relieved sigh, warmth spreading all over her body. "That is wonderful!"

"Yes, it is." Anna then lifted her misty eyes to her. "Elsa?"

That didn't look very good. Worry was already coming back full force inside her stomach. "Yes?"

"Everyone is aware you do your best, but you know you can come to me for help, right?"

That had been a lesson she took an entire year to digest, and a witch-hunter's attack to fully comprehend.

As much as thought herself—and probably was—able to handle the world, Elsa needed Anna and Arendelle as much as they needed her, if not more.

"I know." She brought an arm around her sister's shoulder and squeezed her close. "I'm proud of you, Anna."

"And I of you."

* * *

The sound of chirping birds snapped her out of her drowsiness. Or was it the knocking? The birds had been there before. Anna's head popped out from the door's opening. It probably was the knocking.

"Hey there, sleepyhead. Can we go in?"

Elsa quickly adjusted her position on her seat and threw a nod in her direction. Her book was still on her lap, open at a page she probably had to read again.

Transfer protocols for prisoners were not simple enough that a quick overlook would give her enough information to handle them properly. Especially when the prisoners in question had a ship of their own.

_And why did it have to be Britain?_

Everything about that empire was overly alembicated and complicated, she had come to discover. No matter, she could see that later. Elsa focused her attention on Anna and Kristoff, who had quietly stepped inside and closed the door behind them, basking into the ochre of a falling sun's light.

Anna lightly strode near her to plant a peck on her cheek and envelop her arms around her. "You all right?"

Elsa smiled and leaned into her sister's touch. "I'm fine. My head hurts from reading so many rules that make no sense and contradict each other, but I'll survive."

"And here I am wondering why there aren't more people in politics," Kristoff said.

Anna's chest vibrated against her as she chuckled. "Be like me though; play it dumb, and they'll be so confused or frustrated they'll let you do whatever you want. Validated by an expert in dumb things."

"You're not an idiot, you…idiot."

Anna laughed whole-heartedly. "See? I know I'm not, but it's funny to pretend." She then paused for a few seconds, her head stirring lightly to face the unconscious body that laid in the bed at the center of the room. "He didn't even move, huh."

Elsa's heart fell a bit more when Anna voiced what she already knew very well. It had been almost four days. "He takes his time."

Garret's expression hadn't twitched. The only sign he was still in there was the slow and steady rise and fall under the blanket. Elsa remembered the time she had spent in that shack close to him, hoping he hadn't left her alone. Now she wanted _him_ not to be alone.

"He's going to be fine," Kristoff said. She leveled her eyes at him. He was looking back, his gaze a mixture of confidence and worry. "I like to think I'm a good judge of character. He won't give up so easily."

He wasn't that type of man indeed. Elsa knew that. But she also knew how his anguish had transformed him, that he had been ready to give up because of that one mistake. She could only hope that he understood otherwise now.

She quickly glanced at her hands. At first, steam would leak out in various forms out of them when Garret was using his powers near her. And recalling his storm inside that forest, she realized it had been a long time since that last happened. Both their magics were now used to each other, it seemed.

Anna gave little taps on her shoulder. "Gerda has dinner served if you want to come eat with us."

Elsa sighed. She didn't want to leave his side, but she was indeed hungry.

"That would be lovely," she said with a nod as she stood.

They exited the room as quietly as they had entered, Elsa's eyes focusing on her steps while she walked. She tightened her grasp against her book, starting to think over and over what she'd do if he never woke up.

"You're going to eat with that?" Anna asked.

Elsa's head snapped to her. "Oh, pardon me, I wasn't listening."

Her sister smiled in that tender way that made her heart melt. "You're going to eat with a book? I mean I'm sure it's a very supportive book but we have forks and knives too."

She realized with a start that she had indeed picked it up with her. "Oh no, I'm terribly sorry. I'm just distracted."

"We can see that."

"I'll go put it back immediately."

She turned on her heels and headed to Garret's room. She had completely forgotten her manners. They had come to fetch her and now they probably thought that she was dismissing them.

_Not good, Elsa. Not good._

She put her hand over the handle and froze, the cold of her skin seeping into the metal. Someone was coughing inside. There had been no one else with her when she left. Elsa pushed the door open, her heart drumming so much she could feel every beat in her throat.

His eyes were open. Slightly, but open. They drifted to her slowly, and their green shone a bit more when they fell on her.

"Remember the elephant?" he said. His voice was strained and quiet, not above a whisper—yet it had a certain vitality to it. "He's back. With a few friends."

Elsa walked closer without a word and gently let the book down on the bedtable. She stood at the edge of the mattress, blankly observing his face.

Apparently, he interpreted her silence as some cause for worry—because he would always worry about others first. He furrowed his brows. "Is everyone—"

"Elsa, you're taking way too much time just to put back a book on a shelf. Is everything—"

"—okay?" they said simultaneously.

Anna's word caught up in the air as she stepped inside followed by Kristoff. The shock and surprise faded instantly however, replaced by a wide smile.

"There you are." She walked to Elsa's side and her hands came to her shoulder with a light squeeze as well as to Garret's arm a bit below. "Everyone's fine," she answered.

Elsa didn't know whether Anna had heard the question or she had been anticipating him asking it and her not replying.

Garret sighed. "That's a relief."

"How are you feeling?"

"Like a charm. How long…How long was I in the stars?"

"Three days and some change," Kristoff replied. "It's good to have you back."

"Three bloody days." Garret's glance shifted to Elsa as if he was feeling guilty about it, then returned to Kristoff. "Good to be back."

"Yeah, you're awake now. That's what matters," Anna mused. She then crossed Elsa's gaze. "We should probably go warn Greta. Come with me, Kristoff."

The man looked baffled. "Wait, why? One of us is enough."

"Just…move, you big oaf. _Good judge of character,_ my foot," Anna murmured with a grin as she pushed him out.

The door closed and the words caught up in a painful knot in Elsa's throat. They were there, she just had to speak them out.

"I—"

She could just say hello for a start. It was easy enough.

"I'm—"

That wasn't the start of hello. Why couldn't she just say something?

"I'm sorry," she finally muttered, her head bobbing down.

The full force of the events inside the eastern forest crashed against her. She had been immobile, frozen, _powerless._ She had almost watched him die. If it hadn't been for Arendelle entire, he would have….

Her fists closed and shook; her eyes started tearing up. Was she really going to cry? _Now?_

"What are you apologizing for?"

She perked up. He had said that. With a gentle smile.

And just like that, the knot began untangling. He knew what that felt like. He didn't hold it against her. He was still there.

_And of course, he'd say that._

Elsa chortled earnestly. She lifted her hand to her face and wiped the single tear that had escaped.

"A lot of things actually." She sat on the chair and allowed the corners of her mouth to curve up. "But I'm happy to see you awake."

Garret mirrored her smile. "I would be less overjoyed. Looks like this became my official room. How does it feel having a squatter inside a royal castle?"

"Oh, I believe you'll be cordially invited to see yourself out as soon as you can walk," Elsa answered slyly. "I'm just being polite."

They laughed together and stayed silent for a while, simply enjoying the calm until Garret spoke.

"I have to say, I'm a bit humbled."

Elsa shot her eyebrows up in curiosity, her head slightly tilting to the side. "By what?"

"I got a taste of what it is to be you."

_Oh right. That must have been strange._

"How did it feel using your powers?" she asked.

Garret scoffed. "That was me using my powers in the same sense that repeatedly hammering a cartridge with your finger is firing a gun. Hit the same point hard enough for long enough, and if you're lucky and stupid something's bound to explode." He let his eyes go to his hands and wander along his fingers. "Do you remember when we first met? I had these blocks of ice everywhere." She nodded. "It was a bit like that. It just came over me."

Elsa's stomach dropped. "Was it painful?"

"Yes, it was. Like my skin was trying to go away from needles that pierced it from inside. I was shaking a lot by the end—I think that's what tipped Roger off. And don't you dare apologize again," he added with a half-grin when he saw her open her mouth. "I did what I had to do and I'm happy I did. Unfortunately, I think that was a one-off."

He was right. The pressure it had exerted on his body had almost been too much. She wanted to know more, but he looked like he didn't want to talk about it.

"I must say I am surprised you summoned your armor. I thought you hated it."

Anna had really rubbed off on her.

"It's a bit more complicated than that, but yeah. I couldn't really bring myself to use it on me. But when I saw you on the ground—" He scanned her face silently for a moment. "—I figured I had a choice again. Do nothing and watch someone else burn, or get off my ars—I mean, do something with my hands, even if it doesn't feel great. Neither of the options was the absolute best, but at least I didn't stand there. I want you to know that's because of you."

"Of me?"

" _We're human because of them._ If I'm not mistaken, that's yours. Grandiloquent, imperious. Fitting for a queen, innit? _"_

She lightly slapped his shoulder while repressing a smile. "Hey. You still don't get to cope that way."

That laugh back again. He really did look a lot younger because of how childish it was. It was goofy like he laughed without a single care in the world. It contrasted marvelously against his serious side.

Even beyond that, he had learned. He had trusted her enough to pierce through. To finally see that he was able to heal. It wouldn't be instantaneous, but he had seen it. That he was more than his mistakes. Much more.

"I'm proud of you," she added, her honest sentiment overwhelming her. "I knew you could do it."

"And I sure as all hell didn't. I'm grateful you showed me I could. Even if it was just the one time. _Master_."

"That is still not becoming a thing."

"Really? On my deathbed and all…"

"Never," she asserted with a fake haughty air and a quirked eyebrow. "Do you feel different now?"

"I can't—" He stopped, evaluating what to say as he examined his hands once more. "I do. I'm not sure in what way." His eyes went to the bedtable and to the glimmering blade of silver, red and copper that lied on it next to her book. "You found it."

Elsa smiled. "It seemed important to you, I thought you'd like it back. Einar insisted he'd send people to find it as soon as possible. Roger told us it was still at the ice castle."

"Thank you." Garret scanned her face again. "Is he…?"

"He's down in the dungeons, with his entire group. We cannot handle so many prisoners, so we're probably sending them back to Britain. Though it has been a nightmare trying to figure out the exact protocols."

"Oh Lord, you're in for a headache. Here's my advice: go in head-on, tell them you did their job for them. I'd even ask for compensation."

Elsa gulped. "But that—"

"—is how the empire understands who they're dealing with. Roger is a known man there, you'll make an impression."

Before she could reply, Anna's musical knock resonated once again.

"Here is the medic," she said through the door, casually opening it a second later.

Greta followed and immediately started examining Garret after greeting Elsa. She palped his abdomen, his neck and nape, his arms and legs, his back. She then pulled out a few of her tools and spread them out on the bed table. She still had some tests to do.

Elsa stood and took a few steps back to let her have her space.

"Tell me, G," Anna called with unhidden mischief. "What's your impression on being pampered like this?"

"Pardon me, Your Highness," Greta replied instead. "He should avoid talking while I'm working."

"Oh, okay," she dejectedly conceded, her devilish smile disappearing right away. She turned to her sister and dangled her head left and right while rolling her eyes. Elsa tried to look disapproving and furrowed her brows, but she was sure the giggle that went past her lips had ruined the effect. "What did you talk about?" Anna then murmured, regaining a more fitting gentle smile.

"Oh, you know. Just saying hello."

"Uh-huh. And did he tell you what's next for him?"

Elsa's blank stare surprised even herself. She hadn't even thought of asking that question. "I—"

"—was distracted. Again. That's okay. Greta seems to almost be done. Let's ask him. We can offer for him to stay in Arendelle?"

Elsa tried not to show her reaction on the spot, but that prospect looked enticing. If he stayed, she could teach him more about ice manipulation, he could help with the prisoner transfer, he'd get to recover at his own pace, she'd get to talk to him for a bit mor—wait, what?

A small cry of hurt drew her out of her reverie. The nurse was performing the very last checks, on the extremities of his fingers. She then shared a quick hushed exchange with her patient before pulling away.

"That should do it for now. Please reflect on how close this was. I would advise against repeating the experience," she said with that naturally harsh and rasp tone. Garret nodded sheepishly, seemingly trying to melt into his mattress under the calm but reproachful woman's eyes. "You will be fine, but you'll need extensive rest for a month. That means no jumping around and no ice-making even though you will probably be able to walk in a few days. Is that clear?"

"Crystal. Thank you," Garret squeaked, his voice even quieter than before. Greta bowed to Elsa and Anna once more and exited the room, the former soldier breathing an enormous sigh as soon as the door closed behind her. "Sweet mother of god, was she always like this? Please get me back to the army, at least I could fight back out there."

"That just means she's warming up to you," Kristoff said while nervously scratching the back of his neck. Elsa got the clear impression he was speaking from experience. "She's like that with everyone."

"Not with me," Anna said in dumbfounded confusion.

"Nor me," Elsa added.

Kristoff and Garret threw surprised glances at the sisters.

"You're the royal family," they both uttered out as if the evidence of the matter was plain to see.

 _We are,_ Elsa thought with a shrug after she quickly reexamined the question.

"Anyway. Where are we off to after this?" Anna asked.

Garret looked confused. "Umm. Wherever you want? I can't move for now."

"No, I meant… What are _you_ doing after this?"

"Oh." He cast his gaze down to his fingers. "I gave this a bit of thought, and… And I believe I'll go home."

Elsa's optimism dropped to the ground about as fast as it had shot up.

_Go home?_

Anna was feeling the same if she was to trust her frown and pout. "You're sure about that?"

Garret lifted his gaze to her just before it settled on Elsa. "The way I left certain things is not something I want to live with anymore."

Elsa looked into his eyes and understood. He confirmed her guess with a simple nod.

And then her mind began piecing it together. What he had told her about their parting, their history, Garret's silence in front of Roger, his mother's death…

There was one explanation.

"He's the one who did it…"

Another nod and a short laugh. "I had to land in the one kingdom that makes Scotland Yard look like a bunch of dirt-eating schoolboys."

Anna's eyes flew between the two like a pendulum's steady oscillations. "What just happened?"

"Don't worry about it, Anna," Garret answered with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I'll handle what I have to handle once I'm there."

"Elsa could go with you!" the princess immediately blurted out. "She'll have to take care of the extra-tuition and all that shmick, right?"

"Extradition, Anna. And I don't think it has to be the monarch, a diplomatic envoy is enough."

"But if, like, the Queen herself goes, that means something, no?"

Elsa considered the option. From what she read, that was very possible, if a bit over the top. It was definitely a statement, but no matter how she examined the question, she just couldn't see any logical reason to go.

Still, somewhere deep inside, she wished she could. To be there at his side a bit more before their roads separated.

"Actually, Your Majesty, that's a sound idea," Garret said, a pensive finger lightly tapping on his thigh. He yawned profusely before resuming. "If you go, the empire will understand this matter had serious consequences, on you no less."

"And that we are pissed about it," Kristoff added.

Now that they mentioned it, Elsa properly imagined a few scenarios based on what she knew of the British. Even if Arendelle was indeed small, the idea that the mighty empire had let a Northern kingdom deal with such a threat in their stead would at least bring up questions from the other powers.

France would most likely be the first to jump on the occasion, and while the two countries had not had any grave conflict for a few decades now, the echoes of Napoleon's defeat were still whispered over.

It would not be the biggest scandal yet, but it would be an annoyance important enough to reach the higher spheres. And if she went, she could highlight how seriously Arendelle took that aspect. Showing up with the prisoners was a sign of relative non-hostility—for lack of a better word—coated in very understandable caution. It wasn't much, but it was something.

Elsa visualized all possible outcomes, even the least probable, and most of them led her to the conclusion that while going could very well not gain her anything, it would certainly not cost her anything beyond leaving the country for a few weeks.

That was still an important part of it. She crossed Anna's gaze.

"You can leave it to me here," her sister said with a determined clench of her fists as if reading Elsa's mind. "I can take care of everything while you're gone."

_She's grown so much._

"All right, I'll think about it," Elsa finally admitted. The warmth inside her chest told her she was indulging a bit too much, but she had deserved a trip. Garret nodded in approval, a small smile grazing his lips, but Elsa quickly noticed his eyelids slowly drifting lower and lower. He needed to sleep. "We should probably let him rest."

"Oh, yes," Anna agreed immediately. "Catch some shut-eye, we'll discuss everything once you're up and running."

The faint moan that answered was a clear sign he was already getting back into a comfortable slumber. The trio swiftly stepped outside with as little noise as possible.

"Well, that's that," Anna mused with satisfaction.

"Where did that come from?" Elsa asked as soon as they were far enough.

Her sister dropped her head down, her features abashed. "You looked disappointed. I thought it would be nice…"

Anna always said she knew her better than she knew herself. She could see why she'd think that.

"I… I think I was." The brilliant grin that appeared on her sister's face illuminated her day a bit more. "Thank you."

* * *

The month passed in a blur. One day Garret was still confined to a bed, the next one he was up and walked, suddenly he spent more of his days outside exploring Arendelle, then it was already time to embark on the boats.

And Elsa was surprised to realize how much of that time she had spent with him—not all of it, but it had been sizable enough. She also noticed how much enjoyment she had gotten out of it. They had laughed a lot, that much she knew. She had seen more of that goofy smile too.

They spoke about his magic—what to do with it, when to work on it. He seemed more ready to accept it as a part of him.

They visited Jürden's grave. Garret hadn't known him long, but he said he owed it to him to pay his respects when his last moments had been those of a venerable warrior. Elsa couldn't shake the feeling that the impact had been a lot deeper.

Anna had resumed her sword training, and Elsa had discovered she'd try to use Garret as a sparring partner. She hadn't approved at first. And then she saw his face when Anna would duck and spin and jump and strike; how he seemed impressed, stumbled on his feet because he didn't know how to use a sword himself.

She had a good time. Even her royal duties had been somewhat lighter, but she knew they would come back tenfold after the voyage.

But it was time to go. Her first envoys had taken a few prisoners and their ship a few days ago to prepare her own arrival.

Now, her ship was loaded, the crew readied, the port crowded. Arendelle hadn't seen its ruler leave its borders since her parents' passing. Some were worried, but most were there to wish her a good trip.

Elsa stood before the glistening hull of polished oak and pine wood, the soothing crackle of its joints resting her mind as efficiently as the mewing seagulls on its mast.

"That should be all, Kai."

The chamberlain bowed respectfully. "Very well, Your Majesty. May you find swift winds and agreeable minds," he said, before adding stealthily, "Be careful, I'm told the British are scared of competent people." He then stepped inside the ship to supervise the cargo and settle the very last details of her escapade, leaving a giggling Elsa alone with Anna on the dock.

While the busy port almost disappeared under the sea of people, the brouhahas and ruckus stayed at a relatively low volume.

"This is it, huh," Anna said as she ran her eyes along the length of the wooden bow with an eerie stance.

Elsa gently rubbed her shoulders in a—hopefully—calming gesture. "It's going to be okay. The seas are calm where we're headed."

The last royal voyage had had lasting consequences; she couldn't blame her for being anxious. Anna nonetheless forced a smile on her lips, one of the smiles that Elsa didn't like to see but made her so proud of her sister.

"I know it was my idea, but you know…don't take too long, please? Also, did he give you an answer yet?"

Elsa's face flushed in embarrassment. She hadn't found the courage to ask him. And Anna quickly understood that.

"You still didn't…? It's just a job offer, Elsa," she muttered in a strange mix of consternation and amusement. "He won't ask himself, so it has to be you. Just tell him before you leave England. Okay?"

Anna and Kristoff had spent the entire month trying to discretely—not really—plant the idea that Garret could become a member of the Royal Guard into the man's mind, but he had been completely oblivious to their _subtext,_ as they called it. They concluded that only a direct request would elicit a reaction, and for maximum effect, that request had to come from the Queen herself.

Except something didn't sit well with Elsa. She didn't know why, but it felt like that question was a lot bigger than it seemed. She had to ask it nonetheless.

"I will," she answered. "I promise."

"That's my sis'," Anna said as she brought her into a soft hug. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Anna's voice turned sly when she pulled away and whispered, "Don't make too many Englishmen swoon over there."

Elsa's eyes grew slightly larger. "Do you think I can't control my powers if I'm too far?" she said, worry already starting to creep back up on her.

Anna stared blankly at her for a second before hugging her again a lot more tightly. "You are adorable, and the world needs more people like you."

"I don't think the world could handle more people like her," Kristoff's jovial tone called from behind. The sisters whirled around. The irony of his phrase was not lost on them since Garret walked right beside him on the docks, finally having found his coat back.

"You're late," Anna said, her hands flying to her hips in disapproval. "You made a queen wait."

Garret pointed his finger to his companion. "He wanted to have one last drink."

Kristoff rolled his eyes. "So much for masculine solidarity. Reindeers would never snitch like that."

"It's okay," Elsa said with a quick wave. "They came right on time. Ready, Garret?"

"As much as I can be." He then turned to Kristoff and extended a hand. "So long, mate."

Kristoff accepted the offered handshake with vigor. "Safe travels, buddy."

"Don't forget. Better not to keep it inside."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Garret then walked up to Anna and immediately opened his arms. She fell into the hug with a laugh. "So long, _Your Highness._ "

"You're doing it on purpose, and I won't take the bait. Be sure to train your sword fighting."

"Hey, I beat you last time."

"Firing sword shaped arrows with your bow is _not_ sword fighting."

"I fought you with swords. Not usual swords, but still swords. Rules of grammar say I win."

"Ugh. Get out of here," Anna sighed with feigned exasperation as she pointed to the ship.

Einar and Kai strode out of the boat, the plump chamberlain walking past them with a quick bow while the captain stopped, apparently waiting for something.

"Thank you for the dagger, sir. I didn't have a chance to say it," Garret said with a bob of his head.

"Sure."

Einar then walked away without an additional word, his back straight and his posture dignified.

"He doesn't hate you," Anna chimed. "But he still doesn't like you much."

Garret shrugged. "I don't need him to. The boat is ready, Your Majesty. We should embark."

Elsa nodded, and after one last loving hug to Anna and Kristoff stepped aboard the vessel of metal and wood, Garret on her heels. She exchanged a knowing glance with him and turned to wave at her people standing on the docks, their misty goodbyes and loud cheers warming her heart to the brink of melting.

A vibration shook the entire ship, sending a trembling wave across her entire body. They had departed Arendelle.

Her country was small, but it was lively. And it was _her_ kingdom. _Her_ home. She pushed that strange sentiment that came over her sometimes. Was it stress? It was quick but intense. She dismissed it completely when Garret's voice reached her ears.

"That's something, huh. I'm guessing it is not a common occurrence."

"It isn't indeed."

"I'll miss it."

"Me too. And now—" With one last farewell to her people, she faced away from her birthplace and looked far into the horizon. The unknown was waiting for her, even if it was for a short while. Her heart raced in excitement and anxiousness both. "—to London."

* * *

Anna huddled closer to Kristoff. The three masts now meshed with the clear skies afar, the rippling of the veils fading into the white of the gigantic clouds that ran tranquilly in the background. Elsa wouldn't hear her even if she shouted.

"They're both completely oblivious," Kristoff said, answering her silent question.

"That can't be true."

"I know he is. Tried to get something out during that drink, and nothing. Hearing him, she barely gave him the time of day."

Anna couldn't believe her ears. He was somehow worse than Elsa. "Are you kidding me?"

"Maybe they just don't see each other that way?"

"Kristoff. You could hang _clothes_ on the tension between them. She stayed by his side the entire time he was on that bed, and did you see how they look at each other?"

He shrugged. "They may not be in a good place for it right now."

Anna sighed heavily and gently caressed Kristoff's hand. She wanted Elsa to know what that felt like, but the last thing she wanted was to force her into something she didn't want. "I guess we'll have to wait."

The docks were already emptying, the residents quickly getting back to their daily occupations.

"So, shoud I call you Your Majesty, Queen-Regent?" Kristoff asked, his eyebrow shooting to the sky.

"For two weeks." Anna let her head fall. "Oh dear, I'm in for trouble, aren't I?"

Kristoff gently stroked her shoulder. "Nah, you'll be fine. I'll give you carrots and lots of supportive belly rubs."

"I'm not Sven," Anna bellowed with consternation. "—but okay," she then quickly added in an embarrassed whisper.

"And the dress looks good on you."

They walked back to her castle; her people were waiting. When they reached the port's entrance—or exit, matters of perspective—one of Garret's sentences came back to her. She stopped in her tracks and furrowed her brows.

"What did he mean when he said _better not to keep it inside_?"

Kristoff's eyebrow rose for a second and he chuckled. "I'll tell you when you're older."

"Eww. Is that one of you boys' dirty phrases?"

This time he earnestly laughed that laugh that shook his entire body. That laugh that made him sound like a grandpa and her fall for him a bit more each time.

"That's not the word I'd use."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Okay. 9K words. I never thought I'd reach this milestone for one chapter. Here it is nonetheless, hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> So, a few clarifications about what's coming.
> 
> Next chapter is the final chapter of PaT. That's where the story I wanted to tell ends. Chapter 18 will be a long epilogue that will link PaT to its sequel (because a sequel is planned, even though it won't start right away, but more details on that later).
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it until now, and I thank you for staying with me. Comments/reviews are always very welcome!
> 
> Next chapter has two themes! The first is Syracuse, from Sinbad: Legend of The Seven Seas OST. If you never saw that movie, do yourself a favor and go watch it!
> 
> The second theme I will give at the beginning of Chapter 17, so look forward to that. I will also post an art collection of my own sometime after this chapter, with concept arts and fanarts for the characters (Garret, of course, but also Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff).
> 
> That's all for now!
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


	17. Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Terribly sorry for the slight delay, had some stuff to take care of IRL. I told you there would be another chapter theme: Wesward by Two Steps From Hell it is! I recommend listening to it towards the end of the chapter, you'll know when ;). Otherwise, let's go!

The boat vibrated and hummed under the small waves. Elsa had grown accustomed to the incessant creaking and squeaking of the wood, especially when they were covered by the choirs and cries of the crew.

The sounds had scared her at first. Every startle of the ship would send her to the roof in fear, though getting accustomed to sailing had taken less time than she expected.

Such a racket would usually have distracted her away from reading or working, but she had finally taken a liking to the slightly out of sync symphony that was in full swing outside her cabin. They had reached England a bit earlier that same day. The entire trip had taken less than a week; the chief navigator said that good winds could bring it down to four days.

But it didn't matter to Elsa. She had had time to go over some important matters, study and prepare her case, learn more about her sailing crew. She even could crunch in one or two training sessions for Garret. He hadn't asked for them, but she saw how bored he looked, standing on the deck with his hands behind his back as he silently observed far into the distance.

She straightened her back against the chair with a satisfied sigh.

Behind her, the sun rays filtering through the rear window gave the small office a comforting aura, reflecting off the strips of varnished walls with a crimson shine that swallowed the entire space. The touches of brown patched green here and there had appeared once they'd crossed the border and started sailing on the Thames.

She'd spent a few minutes that afternoon simply observing the shore as they passed village after town, women doing their laundry and children splashing around in the shallows, cows grazing in the midlands and sheep jumping around. The views had filled her with wonder.

She stood to the window and clasped her hands before her.

There were houses now, her eyes could catch the corners of their roofs. Few and far between, but they warranted a stone wall on the sides. Her cabin was a bit lower than the rest of the ship, making her view a bit too obtuse for her to see much beyond the shore, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.

She was in foreign land. A territory that wasn't the one that had seen her grow up. In a strange sense, she was excited. In another, she was intimidated. This was a new experience. She would have to be careful, but her heart raced at the potential discoveries she'd make, at the idea that she would finally get to explore London, even if it was for a couple of days. She'd read about the city at times, and one word always came back: big.

Arendelle was, by all accounts, a minuscule country. She couldn't wait to see what a metropolis looked like.

Someone knocked at the door. Three ups, two downs. She knew who that was and smiled softly.

"You may enter," she said while turning around.

Garret stepped inside with slow movements, closing the door behind him as carefully as he could considering he was transporting a tray. "Hello, Your Majesty. Do you have a moment for tea?"

"Always. Please, take a seat."

Their teas had become a part of her day she came to look forward to. Sometimes they talked. Sometimes they didn't. Sometimes they shared opinions. Sometimes they played a game—cards or chess usually. She discovered she was terrible at those, but he had let her win one or two. Sometimes she'd read a book and he'd just train on his ice-making.

She enjoyed the company.

Garret let the tray down on the table and opened the teapot. "I'm afraid they didn't have hot chocolate this time either." He poured two cups and waited for her to sit before he settled in place.

"To my great disappointment, once again," Elsa answered with a chuckle as she delicately lifted her cup to her lips. "Thank you. A shame that cocoa trees don't grow on water."

"I tried to throw a few seeds. They had a hard time taking root."

Elsa quietly giggled and sipped some tea. "What have you been up to today? I hardly saw you on deck."

Garret's face flushed immediately. "I… I was on the mast."

She narrowed her eyes and furrowed her brows.

_What was he doing up there?_

"I tried to help with the wind orientation," he explained when he saw the confusion plastered on her face, bringing a single finger to scratch his right cheek. "They told me to hold out a finger."

Then she remembered the chief navigator complaining about a failed training, a torn sail, and a course change.

"Was that you?" she asked incredulously.

He gave a silent nod, his eyes darting everywhere but on her. She brought her cup to the table and stared at him blankly.

He had asked for ways he could help around the ship; he had been allowed to try. Not very useful, she was told. She guessed the skills of a ground soldier didn't transfer well into a big boat. Elsa had contained so many laughs seeing him trip on every single rope he could find on the ground she didn't know if she could one day laugh normally again.

But this one was a bit too much.

"Can I?" she asked, not wanting to embarrass him more than necessary without his approval.

Garret sighed and let his head fall with a grunt. "Go ahead."

Elsa heartily gave into light but honest laughs, immediately lifting her hand to her mouth. It was one of those laughs that shook her entire body and were hard to stifle, like when Anna tickled her or when she'd see her impersonate Einar or Kristoff.

She realized quickly she was going to start wheezing soon if she didn't stop. Her chuckles died down progressively and she swept the single tear that zigzagged down her cheek with a gentle finger.

"I apologize. I couldn't hold it."

"Can't blame you," Garret said as he sipped his own tea, keeping a stiff upper lip. "I'm used to people laughing at my expense now. What a cruel world I live in."

"Aaaw. I'm sure it's not as bad as you make it out to be."

"You literally just finished laughing at me."

"Who, me? No, I would never do that."

"That wouldn't be nice."

"No, it wouldn't."

"Only bad people would do that."

"Most certainly."

She drank a bit of her tea again, her eyes not leaving his. Garret's right eyebrow was raised, but so were the corners of his lips. Elsa found herself eagerly smiling back. She liked how playful they'd gotten with each other. It was refreshing not to take everything seriously.

"To bad people," Garret said. The two cups lifted simultaneously.

"This has to be the worst toast I've ever participated in."

"Good thing nobody's watching."

"You are."

"Do I count?"

Elsa pensively leaned back in her chair, her eyes lifted to her cabin's roof. "I guess you don't."

The teacups were emptied and found their way to the table once more. Elsa's mind went back to the prisoners the entire voyage was about. Most of Hopkin's Blessed had been taken on the first boat, but the thinking heads were on her ship, on the lower deck.

"Speaking of bad people… Did you not want to talk to Roger? Confront him?" she asked.

Garret's gaze didn't harden as much as she expected it to. "I don't. He spent an entire year tracking me before he lost me. I know what he thinks, and I know he'll never change his mind. Also, if I have to be honest—" He stared outside, his eyes empty. "—he looks a lot like his brother, especially with that stupid eyepatch on. When I see his face, I only remember that night—and I don't want to, not anymore. It also reminds me of the day my father killed that Liam bastard. He embodies everything I want to bury by coming here."

"That makes sense. So, when you went _there_ , it was to prevent your father from going through with it?"

That was the only detail he hadn't evoked. She could certainly see how he'd have wanted to cut the circle of hatred.

Garret fiddled with his cup. "I'm sorry if this sounds cold, but no. He had just killed my mother. She was my whole life. My father just beat me to it. Without him, _I_ would have done it. I just happened to take the blame. I know it's not very glorious…"

Elsa was disappointed. She'd held the hope he'd been past that. Then she imagined someone doing the same to Anna. How Roger had almost done it to Garret himself and how she didn't know what she would have done had he succeeded. The rage she felt immediately boiling inside her chest told her a question like that couldn't be so easily answered.

"I… I can't really say I agree, but I understand."

"I can't ask for more."

"So, Roger never saw your father?"

"No. I knew he'd go after him if he ever discovered what had really happened. He saw my armor anyway, so I figured I might as well keep him occupied on one target. And that's when I last saw my father. That's when we… were gobshites to each other."

Elsa noted the quick change in his behavior. She hadn't missed his tired face. Now that it was less and less frequent, it stood out clearly whenever she saw it. And it broke her heart a bit more each time.

"Hopefully that'll all be behind us very shortly," Garret added a little more cheerfully, his eyes perking up and regaining some light.

Elsa sighed and threw a look outside. "I wonder when we'll reach London."

Garret lifted an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

His confusion had her confused. Being confused by confusion was a first for Elsa. Had her phrasing been obscure?

"I don't know how long we still need to sail before we reach London," she explained.

He chuckled and stood from his seat. "We've been in London for the last forty minutes."

Her eyes widened and she barely prevented her jaw from falling to the ground. "Wait, really?"

That couldn't be true. The walls on the shore had gone on and on. The spaced-out houses, the long openings… Was that all the same city?

Garret pushed the cabin's door open, inviting her up the stairs. "Let me show you."

She followed him up, her heart drumming, and when they reached the very last step, Garret threw a large smile her way.

"Your Majesty? Welcome to the capital of the world."

Stepping outside took her breath away. In front of the ship, the waters were full to the brim with trading boats from the four corners of the world. Large and small, old and new. Some didn't even have sails. She had read about the advancement of steamboats. This was the first time she ever got to see any—and there were hundreds of them ahead. The flows of white clouds pumped out the central chimneys were thicker than she'd imagined, merging together in a huge white fog above their heads.

The port was enormous—it alone was bigger than Arendelle entire. Elsa quickly understood that what she thought were openings that led to vast clearings actually were shipbuilding docks. The sounds of hammers forging steel and thumping wood echoed from left and right along with the bells of commercial boats fighting for space in the overcrowded canal.

Elsa came to the ship's railing and let her forearms rest on the smooth surface. Beyond the water level, she couldn't discern the end of the sea of roofs. The blackened surfaces waved far into the land, not letting a single speck of green pierce through. The platforms just below the houses seemed to have even more people than the Thames did boats.

The mix of dresses, shaggy pants and formal hats was so eclectic it almost was elegant in its asymmetry. No one looked like their neighbor—immigrants and assorted workers of the world were amassed on the docks, leaving the ships they'd been working on, joining a crowd where long wool coats dangling off clean and clearly expensive shirts mixed with worn-out shoes and discolored trousers of proverbial squalor.

There was also an indescribable stench. The strange smell seemed to come from all directions, but a rapid overlook told her that the shadows of smoldering smog that rose far into the distance had something to do with it.

The images she had of the city almost always involved grisly secrets and stifling inequality—a place that gigantic couldn't satisfy everyone equally, she knew it—but she would have never guessed it was to this extent.

Garret stood behind her with his arms crossed. "This is London. You can find anything. The good, the bad, and everything in between. You name it, it's here. I was never a fan of it."

She stood straight, delicately bringing a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I was expecting it, somehow." Her eyes drifted to the left, and her surprise only grew when she noticed an immense construction site that seemed to envelop a baroque building and even larger metal structures sprouting from the ground and reaching into the river.

"That's poor old Westminster. And those are bridges that connect the palace to everything else," Garret explained, having obviously noticed her silent awe. "They've done a good job since last I was here. It was basically a ruin back then. They want to create bigger things everywhere ever since the palace burned down. It looks like they went all in. Next thing I know they're going to build a giant bell just for the sake of it."

Elsa scanned the palace. It was indeed beautiful, far more intricate and detailed than anything she'd ever seen—except maybe her own ice castle. Spirits, she missed it dearly.

"If the General Staff and some Lords of the House are the ones who are going to receive you—which I'm guessing is going to be the case—that's where you are headed."

"I'm not even seeing the Queen?"

"That would be a first. And believe me, that's a good thing. I only knew her reign for a year before I left, but she has a reputation for…being quite hard-headed."

That news was comforting—she was anxious enough as it was, adding an audience with the head of the British Empire herself would have killed her out of sheer nervousness. She wanted to state her case and go home.

Elsa turned back to the palace. The little sculptures on the corners were hard to see clearly from a distance, but her love for architecture and geometry soared in glee. She would get to see it closer.

"I'm happy I'm here," she said.

Garret looked confused. "You are?"

She faced him with a smile. "I am. I never had the chance to see anything new. I never expected the city to be a fairytale utopia, but this is different enough that it will in all cases be immensely enriching."

He answered with a beam of his own. "I guess so."

"Would you like us to go see your father as soon as we dock?" she asked. "My ambassador probably has everything ready for an audience tomorrow or the day after."

"I'll head out as soon as I kno—wait, _us_?"

"Indeed," Elsa said with a nod, her voice pitching down in anticipated disappointment. "Unless…you don't want me to come with you?"

Garret stared at her for a few moments with an eyebrow raised. "I wouldn't mind, but is it really something you want to do? You could visit the city while I'm away."

Elsa swept the view around her. "This is important to you. I'd like to be there. Also, I'll visit on the way. Like that, I'll have a local with me. Much more authentic."

Garret's gaze dropped to the floor, the air around him vibrating from a deep chuckle that sprang from his chest. "In that case, I have to warn you. Even if I let it out sometimes, I try to contain the slang whenever I'm near you. Out there, I'll have to unleash the Brit in me. I'm not sure you're ready for that."

"I'll manage."

"Your funeral. Another point: the dress looks incredible on you, but maybe a change of clothing is in order, majesty."

"Why? What would I wear?"

"Something that doesn't glitter would be nice. Otherwise, those dear Londoners are going to flock together like flies on—I mean, like bees on a flower."

"I know what you were going to say," Elsa chastised.

"I took it back!"

"Still thought about it."

"I'm not winning this, am I?"

Elsa giggled, the slight annoyance she felt at his—almost—use of vulgarity vanishing away. He had become much more considerate. "You tell me."

He took a long breath and lifted his hands in defeat. "I know when to quit. I still think it's necessary, Your Majesty. The generals probably think I'm long dead, but there's no need to attract unwanted attention on the deserter who happens to travel with a foreign ruler."

She had completely forgotten that aspect. He had deserted. He was an outlaw in his own country. That fact spoke volumes about how important coming back was to him.

"I'll be sure everything is in order when we dock," he continued, his smile unwavering. "We're there in about ten minutes."

The ship had indeed stopped moving, the port staff scurrying about to tie the bow and the stern to the port.

 _He's very casual about this_ , she thought. If he stayed by her side, he wasn't going to have a lot of issues. Hopefully.

"Very well," she said. "I'll be ready in no time."

* * *

Elsa walked down the sturdy platform.

Garret was waiting at the end of the pier, his back pressed against a wooden pole as he silently observed the endless stream of covered heads and disheveled hair that passed by him. The sound of her heels made him spin around.

"How do I look?" she asked.

He examined her dress for a second. She had chosen a simple deep blue travel garb, a lot less elaborate than her usual ice robe. She had been thorough: no sign of ice anywhere on her body. Even the small crystals that kept her hair in a neat braid had disappeared. She had tied it in a bun now, not unlike how her mother had liked it.

She also brought a small purse; she hoped it made her look more formal that way. She wasn't overly fond of her new outfit, but it was the less flashy she could put together.

"Discreet enough but ravishing nonetheless," Garret answered with a wide grin.

"I know you're just telling me what I want to hear."

"I mean it, though."

"You're using another definition of _mean_."

"Who, me? No, I would never do that."

"Uh-huh."

Garret slowly bowed and extended a hand to help her off the pier. "I really _mean_ it."

Elsa raised her own hand to meet his, a sly tone taking over her voice almost involuntarily. "I'll believe you. This once."

"My deepest gratitude. What did your envoys say?"

"Audience in two days, but the Board wants to see me tomorrow. They apparently didn't even know Arendelle existed."

"Typical. That's the entitled brass for you. Now; my father lived a few blocks away from here, and I don't see him having a reason to move out. But the city is big, and the people are weird. Please do your best to stick to my side. If anything bothers you, let me know. Shall we go?"

Elsa nodded confidently. "On your heels."

He smiled and walked, Elsa following in his steps. The deeper they delved into London, the more crowded the streets became. Fortunately, Garret's silhouette shouldered a way through the more congested areas for her to cross and was easy to keep track of, her eyes going back to him whenever they had drifted to admire her surroundings.

Everything about London was extreme. From the number of carriages that drove and dodged and evaded each other and the myriad of pedestrians crossing the paved road that was as large as Arendelle's main body of water to the cries and shouts and yells that emerged from all sides at once in a messy cacophony. From the flawless gold and copper façades of the main avenue's shops that shone brighter than the falling sun to the gritty and muddy underpasses that weaved together in a labyrinth of infamy, the Capital was fascinating, intimidating, exhilarating, overwhelming.

Elsa admired the beauty of the architecture, but her heart clenched a little more with each sitting beggar on the sidewalk; the poverty-stricken neighborhoods were probably riddled with people who just needed a helping hand.

She brought her eyes back to her traveling partner a couple of feet in front of her. He too threw saddened glances here and there, but he was mostly busy giving her a few words describing the milestones they encountered and sending away the many street vendors that harassed every single passerby.

At one point, she noticed a little brown-haired girl standing on her own, an almost empty cup at her feet, singing a simple familiar melody. The poor soul was covered in dirt and mud from the knees down, but her smile was so bright that Elsa stopped walking altogether. The girl looked everyone in the eye, without a single demand, without a single plea. Nobody paid her any attention—some didn't look like they even heard her. Her smile and her voice were all she had. And she was being ignored.

Elsa approached her and listened to her for a minute. Every other sound faded away in the background: the footsteps, the wheels, the clamor, and the ruckus. Everything but the crystalline voice of a lost child that didn't find a better way to get by than by spreading a beautiful tune. She liked that melody: it was very close to the one Garret had hummed many times. The vision was enough to bring Elsa to the brink of tears.

The girl noticed her and immediately interrupted her singing, her eyes growing fearful. Elsa quickly realized how her staring might have been wrongly interpreted.

"Don't worry," she comforted immediately, blinking back the humid tingling in her eyes. She ruffled inside the small purse and pulled out a silver trinket. It wasn't much, but it would help. "Here, this is for you."

The girl's eyes couldn't have gotten bigger without popping out their socket. They darted from the small bibelot to Elsa's face. "For me?"

Elsa grinned and lightly brought herself at the little girl's eye-level. "Yes. For you. And this—" She opened her palm under her coat to hide it from any prying eyes, a flurry of snowflakes spinning and condensing into a small crystal flower. "—this is for you, too."

The girl delicately took the small ornament and turned it between her fingers, but her eyes rested on the flower more insistently, her mouth gaping in awe before contorting into a broad smile. "Oh, thank you! Thank you, Madam!" She picked her cup up and darted away into the alley behind her, her bright grin still shining. She threw one last "Thank you!" before disappearing around the corner.

Elsa smiled tenderly despite the nagging feeling that many more like her would have needed her help. Unfortunately, it was far beyond her capabilities to resolve such a complex matter, in a foreign country no less.

The single steps she took on her own were all she could manage. It was something. Little gestures were better than nothing.

She stood back up and realized with a start that Garret wasn't at her side. She hadn't even notified him that she had stopped.

_Oh, no. He's going to worry now… That wasn't very smart, Elsa._

As much as she liked the discovery, wandering London's streets alone wasn't an enticing prospect. She scanned the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of red hair dashing around. Her heart rate was already speeding up.

_I'll find him. I don't have to panic._

There were moments she loathed her long years alone more than others. This was one of those. She couldn't throw a frozen signal to the skies. Garret would see it, but so would half the city. What could she do?

"I see you're lost, wee lass."

That wasn't Garret's voice; someone was standing behind her. She turned to face the stranger and fought the urge to whirl back around from the stench of his breath. The patches of filth and the lack of teeth were unsettling, but she had seen him earlier. He was one of the beggars a little up the street and he was way too close for comfort. She took a step back, her hand charging magic on reflex.

"I'm fine, thank you."

The shaking in her voice was a dead giveaway.

His smile grew larger, and while his suave tone wanted to sound reassuring, the fact that his eyes were glued to her purse was not a good sign. "I don't want to be a bugger, just proposing my humble services. In exchange for those shiny pieces in there."

His hand drifted forward, aiming for the purse. She hid it as much as she could, not wanting to resort to force if it wasn't necessary. "I'll be fine on my own, thank you."

"Now," he said, his voice more menacing. "You can give me that purse and I'll disappear. Or you can resist, and it'll get ugly."

Elsa would have retreated a bit more, but she envisioned how fragile she would appear if she pushed herself against a wall. She stood her ground instead, staring daggers at the stranger.

"I will not ask you again. Leave me—"

The moment she was about to call for her ice, the sound of a more familiar deep inflection emerged from behind the robber.

"Y'know, mate. There's a brilliant story that's told around these parts." Garret appeared next to him, putting a firm hand on his shoulder. "They say that there was once a cunt that walked this street bothering the toffs. One day he bothered the wrong toff and was told to piss off. He thought he was in fact right and kept pushing anyway. Except the toff in question could impale him with her bare hands. That poor cunt never walked the street again."

The stranger backed off slightly, his eyes dashing from her to Garret's quiet and smiling face.

Elsa didn't recognize that expression. It wasn't the tired and fake grin, nor the goofy smirk. It was calm, small enough to feel like a courtesy, but it held a silent wrath that was new on him. His grip around the bandit's shoulder visibly tightened.

"All—All right, mate," the wannabe robber yelped with a wince. "I'm sorry. I didn't know she had a guy."

"Weirdly, that sentence isn't helping your case. Think over that story, and what incredibly deep meaning lies in there. And while you're at it, piss off."

The robber-beggar apologized once more—his eyes however were not apologizing at all—and moved away. Garret's gaze didn't leave him until he disappeared in the crowd before it came back to Elsa.

"Terribly sorry about that, Your Majesty," he said, his traits taking a softer—and less intimidating— expression. "I lost you out there."

She shook her head. Her pulse was gradually slowing down. "It was my fault. I saw a little girl, and… I should have warned you."

"Everything all right?" he asked, the caring tint of his words not going past her ears.

"I'm okay," she said. She was a bit shaken, but he was there.

"I'm glad you didn't smite him to the heavens, but good job on getting ready for it," Garret said on a joking tone. "He probably deserved it."

Elsa chuckled. "We saved ourselves the pain of explaining that to the whole street. We're on a tight schedule anyway."

"That we are. Speaking of which, my father's place is not far. There's an entire block full of Army reserved houses. I suggest you stay at my side for this time?"

She nodded in agreement.

The way he stood up for her unapologetically was something that she was starting to learn. Garret struggled with his own self-worth, with his own thoughts, but he had always known how to fight for something.

She had shown him how to do that for himself, and he was teaching her how to redirect her own strength outside.

As they started walking once again, her hand lifted and lightly grabbed the hem of his cloak. That way she wouldn't drift off to spirits-knew-where. He apparently felt the gentle tug and quickly threw a glance at her fingers, then at her face before earnestly returning the smile she was giving him.

Elsa had a feeling she could ask him now. But first, she had to stop her fingers from shaking.

"Garret?"

"Hmm?"

"You know…Once we're done with everything…"

"Yes?"

"Einar is going to become my advisor. So, that means someone else will become the Guard's Captain."

"Seems fair."

"And that means someone else _else_ will become Lieutenant."

"I'm following."

"Umm. Would you…"

"Would I what?"

Elsa inhaled sharply. "WouldyoubeinterestedincomingbacktoArendelle?" she finally blurted out, the sound of her fast beating heart taking over her ears.

"Coming back where?" he simply answered.

"Wha—? Oh, Arendelle. Co-Coming back to Arendelle."

"Coming back to Arendelle? How?"

"Well, with me, on the ship... Since I'm going back, if you—you're doing that on purpose, aren't you?"

"Guilty," he said with a laugh. He kept his eyes forward, his lips still curled up. "As a Lieutenant of the Guard?" She responded with a weak nod. "Can I…have a day? Think about it?"

Elsa let her breath out. It wasn't a yes, but it wasn't a no either. "Of course."

* * *

The sun had disappeared a few minutes ago, the lights of blazing oil and wood illuminating the streets. The neighborhood was a lot calmer.

"It's here," Garret said, his slight tremor betraying his nervousness.

Elsa followed his pointed finger. They had reached a rather unspecial door, with a brass sign on the left of the stone entrance.

_Gen-Brig. Cart._

Was that his address?

Garret scoffed. "Brigadier, huh? Took him long enough."

It wasn't his address.

Elsa roughly knew the ranks and what importance they held. But everything became more or less blurry above the grade of Colonel. "Is that a lot?" she asked.

Garret tilted his head. "It is. He probably commands over five thousand men. The full title is Brigadier-General—the equivalent in the Navy would be a Commodore. He's basically just below the highest-ranking officers. The chuffed bastard."

Elsa suddenly felt a lot more intimidated by whom she was about to meet. She knew what a general was. Until then, he had been Garret's father in her head. Only now did she realize that they were going to knock at the door of someone who had under his orders more people than her entire capital city's population.

Garret himself was a knight, but it had been a long time since she'd thought about him that way. He was her friend, and he never actually behaved like a knight—however a knight was supposed to behave.

"And what does Cart mean? Is it a sub-rank?"

"That's our last name. Well, most of it. We are the Carters. My father's called Alastair."

He probably was aware what her last name was—it was plastered everywhere on those portraits back home—but she had never asked him about his. She still had a lot to learn in terms of social interactions.

Garret readied his closed fist, letting it hover inches before the door without making contact.

_Is he hesitating?_

"Something wrong?" she asked, her mind filling with worry.

His hand drifted down slowly. "I don't know if this is a good idea," he said. "I…I probably should leave him alo—"

"Garret," she called. He turned a shaking glance at her. She understood his hesitation. Once again, his guilt was freezing him in place. But he needed to walk forward. "I'm here. He owes you an apology. And I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

His shoulders sunk and he released a quick breath. "All right, here goes."

He knocked sharply. Muffled steps traversed the wood, and when the door opened, it was to the face of an unknown middle-aged woman wearing what clearly was a servant's garment.

"Good evening. Master Carter doesn't have appointments scheduled tonight."

"I believe he'll make an exception this time. Please tell him that Garret is at the door."

The servant examined them both, her eyes narrowing when they fell on the soldier. She suddenly inhaled and disappeared in a hurry, not bothering to close the door behind her. The sound of climbing stairs was quickly followed by the reverse trip's commotion.

In a split second, Garret straightened his back, glued his feet together, and lifted his chin.

The steps drew closer, and soon enough a man she assumed was his father appeared. He looked nothing like his son—he was slightly taller, a lot bulkier. His neatly groomed beard and dark hair were impressively preserved for someone she estimated was in his late fifties.

He was wearing a simple uniform, one that seemed much more suited to civilian life than to the harsh domain of command, but on the shoulders were one crown and three pips, similar to the ones on Garret's dagger.

He panted heavily—he had come as fast as he could. His eyes rested on Garret.

"Good Lord above." Now Elsa could see—or rather, hear—that he was his father. While their accents were slightly dissimilar, they had the exact same voice. "Garret."

"Sir. Long time."

_Did he just call him 'Sir?'_

They stayed silent, watching one another. She couldn't exactly tell because of the dim lighting around them, but Alastair's eyes twinkled a bit more—they were tearing up. After a very uncomfortable minute, Garret cleared his throat and shifted on his spot.

"You might want to pay your respects. This is Her Majesty, Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

Alastair snapped back to reality, shook his head and only then seemed to notice Elsa. She lightly bowed in greeting. He mirrored her gesture with surprising grace.

"I am terribly sorry, Your Majesty. It has been a while since I've last seen my son. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

Elsa dismissively waved her hand. "Don't worry about that. This is not official, I merely am here to accompany Garret."

Alastair raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yes," Garret answered. "Can we…go inside, please?"

Alastair fumbled with his words. "Well…I…Of course! Come in, come in."

Elsa contained a look of surprise. Under the burly exterior, Alastair was as much of an awkward dork as Garret.

But more importantly, was that a reunion of a father and son who hadn't seen each other in three years?

Putting the question in a corner of her mind—different people, different ways to react—she stepped inside, Garret following closely.

The house wasn't glitzy, but it was elegant. The predominant colors were dark with tan and gold highlights, creating an interesting contrast to the trim painting of ashen pinks, tans, pale blues, and black detailing. The combination of colors was repeated throughout the entire corridor. The tall, heavy, varnished wood doors had as the top panel, colored glass panes of amber, blue and pink, in a geometric design. On either side of the main doors were smaller, longer versions of the glass windows. They had molded surrounds of painted wood with bulls-eye corner blocks and decorative accents on the baseboard. The doorknobs, plates, and hinges were of a brass identical to the identification plaque outside.

They reached a small sitting room. The fireplace, situated on the interior wall, had a tall mantel of birchwood with turned spindles flanking a rectangular mirror supporting a tapered hood. The hearth was set with dark patterned bricks of very chiseled designs with light blue and white floral tiles surrounding the firebox.

The fine tapestry glowed with a bloodred that contrasted wonderfully with the rest of the room.

Elsa checked on Garret—he had been completely mute ever since they had gotten inside.

_What is he waiting for?_

"You have very good tastes," she complimented in the meantime. She hoped he would speak up soon, she was horrible at small talk.

"Thank you, excellency. Might I interest you in a cup of tea?"

The still nameless servant, who had stayed close the entire time, dashed out the room as soon as Elsa nodded. Alastair pulled a chair for her to sit on.

"I certainly did not expect a visit from a queen. I heard of your audience with the General Staff tomorrow. First of all, I'd wish to thank you for bringing my son back safely. I was…worried about him. Hopkin's Blessed has a certain reputation." He was about to take a seat himself when Garret lifted a hand. He hadn't moved from the room's entrance.

"Can we…talk a bit, sir? Alone?"

Alastair sighed heavily. "There's no need to call me _Sir_ , Garret."

"All… All right. Can we talk? Please? I don't like how we left things."

_That's a direct way of putting it._

Getting to the point. Anna always said it saved time and headaches. Elsa was slowly learning why.

"I…" Alastair's eyes rested on her. He looked like he wanted to follow his son, but the presence of a queen in his living room probably didn't help to motivate him.

"I will be fine," she reassured. "That is the reason we came. Please, take your time."

Alastair's traits relaxed in relief and he bowed respectfully. "Excuse me." He strode out of the room, Garret stepping aside to clear the way.

Just before he followed his father up the stairs, he threw one last glance to Elsa. She reflexively gave a thumbs-up, mustering the widest smile she could.

Garret chuckled softly, regaining some enthusiasm before climbing the staircase to the upper level too.

Elsa sat alone, the corner lamp's faint crackle her only company until the servant came back with a very fancy looking teapot resting atop a golden-colored tray. She didn't ask where Alastair and Garret had gone, but her lifted eyebrows had been communicative enough.

"Your tea, majesty," she said after a second.

"Thank you."

She disappeared as quietly as she had appeared with quick steps, leaving Elsa with her thoughts once again.

She sank into her chair. The room's silence was only troubled by the sounds of her blowing over and sipping the hot beverage. The delicate aroma came to tickle her palate, spreading across her mouth with a very gentle warmth that made her sigh in contentment—that woman knew how to make a good tea.

Elsa would have pricked up her ears in the hopes of catching some parts of what father and son were talking about above her, but Garret had been very evasive on the words they had exchanged the last time they had seen each other.

 _The only times you should be careful not to speak are when you're happy and when you're angry,_ she recalled her mother's favorite saying. Elsa smiled softly. Anna had taken a lot after her, but her words were more akin to general truths than moral lessons.

_I miss you, Mama._

After long moments of lonely thoughts, Elsa spent the next hour letting her eyes wander around the paintings hanging on the walls. A few represented old towns that crumbled under the moss, some others ancient churches whose ashen bricks looked like they barely held together, but there was one portrait.

She stood closer, recognizing the faces drawn by a careful brush on the fine canvas. The first visage was identifiable even without his beard. The two tuffs of red hair his arms were encircling were that of a young man and his mother.

 _Alastair, Aileen and Garret Carter_ , Elsa read on the plaque. _So_ _that's how she was called._

Just above it, on small counters, several statues of wooden animals without a single speck of dust. Elsa remembered clearly Garret's mother's work. Alastair had kept them close to him.

She spent a few moments examining the painting. It wasn't very old, probably a few years at most. For it to capture their appearance so accurately, the painter had to be Alastair himself. Unless it had been done just before her death.

The drumming sound of footsteps descending the stairs reached her ear. Alastair entered the room, his expression pensive.

"Is Garret okay?" was Elsa's first reflex.

"He is, majesty," Alastair answered with a small grin. "I wanted to give him some time. He's reviewing some items left by his mother." He crossed his arms and lifted his eyes to the roof as if watching his son through the planks of woods and inches of concrete. "I still cannot believe he's alive and well. You seem like you're close if he trusts you to come with him. I assume you know his story and his powers?"

Elsa faced him and clasped her hands together. "I do."

Alastair let a heavy breath escape his lips. "I regret many things. I made mistakes with the boy. I forced expectations on him when he needed options. I know I wasn't a very good father."

She agreed silently. He had made mistakes. What could she say except that? He didn't have her sympathies, but least he was honest with himself about it.

"And yet, he comes here to ask me if I still see him as—" he stopped, giving his eyes a quick wipe with his sleeve. His voice had started quivering. "I wasn't very vocal with him growing up, and the only time I open my damn mouth... I don't deserve to be forgiven, much less to be asked forgiveness."

"He forgave you?"

"He said he'd try, but that he's aware I never had bad intent."

"But you apologized?"

"Of course, I did. We both did. I know I did wrong—and that an apology does nothing for him. I spent the last three years marinating on what I would have told him," Alastair explained with a curt sniff. The weight of tears seemed too much for his eyes, and soon enough a few drops of saline water were caught in his beard. He got a hold of himself a lot quicker than she would have thought possible, getting rid of both trails with two fast movements of his wrists. "I thank the Lord for the opportunity to simply speak to him, say what I should have said long ago. And I mustn't forget to thank you too. My apologies for this sorry display."

"No need. Garret has been…an immense help. I'm just here for a friend."

Alastair chuckled. "Despite craving the opposite, my boy has always been forced to be a loner, what with his abilities and everything. I'm glad you could be there for him." He raised his chin and closed his eyes. "Nothing like thinking your son dead to remind you of what you should have done, eh? I had never told him I love him."

Garret knocked at the door, pressing his right shoulder against the door frame. His face bore a neutral expression that made it look a lot like he was sleeping with his eyes open—Elsa could clearly see the slightly reddish contour around them. "I'm done with everything, Father. I think we'll be on our way. Her Majesty needs to rest for tomorrow, right?"

Elsa was a bit taken aback. "I…I mean—Sure."

"Very well, son. I… Let me escort you," Alastair said as he stood straighter.

"We'll be alright," Garret said with a lifted hand. "If you want, we can meet tomorrow at the ship. We can talk a bit more then."

"Um. All right. Sounds like a plan."

They left without any further word, simply waving to Garret's father on the patio.

* * *

The streets were empty, and they reached the port in no time. Elsa had fiddled with her fingers the entire way, not really knowing what to say. She had tried to come up with a way of questioning him without being too invasive. Had he come to a decision? Why had he wanted to leave in such a hurry? Had the trip been worth it?

"It went fine," Garret said, interrupting her train of thought and stopping at the end of the pier that led to the Arendellian-flagged ship.

She perked up, not even surprised that he knew what was whirling around in her mind. "It did?"

"Uh-huh. We emptied our bags. Said what we had to say. We managed to get rid of one or two regrets."

"And about your desertion?"

"They did think I was dead. That gives my father tomorrow to try to sort things out. He said he's confident he can come up with a solution."

Elsa let her shoulders relax and smiled. "I'm glad."

"So am I. That's one less thing to worry about. Now, there's one last business I have to take care of."

That was new. He hadn't talked to her about anything. She took a few seconds to reflect and came to the single possible conclusion.

"Oh!"

"It'll take one or two days at most," he continued. "But I have to go now. So, Your Majesty." He faced her and dropped his voice. "I know you're nervous about tomorrow. I don't think I can make you _not_ be nervous. But I have to tell you that you're not the weak party in those negotiations."

She stared at him, wide-eyed. Where did that come from?

"You are Elsa Àrnadalr, Queen of Arendelle. The freaking strongest person I know. You just have to show them exactly that."

She couldn't contain a stupid grin spreading all over her face. "That's a bit over the top, don't you think?"

He rolled his eyes. "Just take the encouragement," he said, lifting a hand afterward. "And remember that strength. It's yours, all right? You got this."

She gave a small tap on his open palm, her determination invigorated. "I do. Thank you. Say hello for me."

Garret saluted. "Yes, Ma'am."

* * *

The return to London lasted a lot less than he'd thought. Luck had been on his side for once—only two trains reached the capital from Linton every week, and he had managed to catch the last. The port was busy as always; he looked up, searching for a purple and green flag. He located it in one quick sweep and walked towards it.

Garret was happy he finally got to say his goodbyes. The tomb was elegant, simple. Some of her statues were on it—she would have liked it that way. He hoped she could see the small gift he had left for her from wherever she was.

His father hadn't rebuilt the house. It was probably for the better, he didn't have a reason to. His life was in London now.

Garret caught a glimpse of said father in front of the ship, a strand of platinum blond hair waving with the wind just at his side. Elsa noticed him quickly and gave a timid wave as soon as he got close enough. The beautiful grin on her face was a good sign.

"Your Majesty. Father." They both returned the bow. "How did it go?"

"Fantastically!" Elsa exclaimed. "They accepted all of our conditions."

"The General Board acknowledged the immense service Arendelle has done for the crown," Alastair explained. "The conviction of its leader promises a long and fruitful future."

Why did he feel like his father had something to do with it?

"Really now?"

Elsa's slightly reddish face and pursed lips were the only indications of her contained excitement. "That is… what happened indeed."

"The Board wishes you safe travels and hopes to see you soon in less dire circumstances," Alastair said. He then curtsied, ending the official exchange. "Now, I have a few matters to discuss with you, Garret."

The way he had turned the conversation was a bit abrupt, but he could at least hear what he had to say—it looked serious. "Sure."

"Unfortunately, the Board refused to acknowledge your actions. You are a deserter and will be treated as one. However, there is a compromise. A knight can ask to leave the army whenever he wishes for it, but he must revoke his status if he leaves before the end of his appointed service. And for that—"

"—I must hand back the token."

Alastair nodded, the small half-wince he performed then filled with both melancholy and relief. "Exactly."

"Do I have to see the Board?"

"No, I will be enough."

Garret didn't even have to think about it. He reached inside his coat and pulled the copper dagger. Studying it for the last time, he imprinted the form of the letters on the blade in his mind. The same letters that had guided all his decisions for his first two decades.

_Alastair Of Linton._

_Aileen Of Linton._

**AoL.**

He reached out, the dagger on his palm. Alastair picked it up, examined it quickly, and stored it in a brown leather sheath before straightening his back.

"As of now, Garret of Linton, you are no longer a Knight of The Bath. All of the perks associated with the position are taken from you. You are also free of your duties for the Royal Army, and no martial action will be pursued against you. You cannot access military-reserved facilities anymore, nor ask to be assigned to a regiment, until you—if you so decide—join the ranks again. You are expected to uphold the values of the Empire in your civilian life, for you have been and will be a soldier at heart. Your country and Her Majesty Queen Victoria thank you for your service. _Auspicium Melioris Aevi._ "

The two men shared one last sharp salute.

"That was quick," Garret said. This had only been official in name. They probably just wanted to get rid of him. "You really have the authority to do this?"

"I'm a Brigadier. If the generals tell me to do what I want, I do whatever the hell I want. Just needed to pass the message along somehow and get the dagger back."

"Good thing I kept it, then."

"Indeed. Anyway. What's your plan?"

Garret crossed Elsa's gaze. Her half-worried, half-confused face was adorable beyond words. He had taken his decision the moment she had asked, but he didn't want her to think it was something he'd be set over on a whim. "I received an invitation. I'm going to accept it."

Elsa's face brightened in a way that almost made him fawn. His father, on the other hand, slumped in disappointment.

"Oh."

Garret stepped closer. "I know we didn't have enough time. This isn't something we can go over in one conversation. But we'll get more. I'll come visit. And, if Her Majesty is okay with it…"

"Of course," Elsa said in a hurry. She knew where he was going. "You are most welcome to Arendelle, Sir Carter."

His father's eyes went from one to the other and he let a sigh escape from deep within his chest. "Thank you. I'll take you up on that."

They then stood awkwardly there, shifting on their feet. Garret had to say his goodbyes. Between his duties and the distance, he wouldn't see him for a few months, at the very least.

_Come on, say something._

Before he could open his mouth, Alastair had brought his arms around him and almost crushed him in his embrace. "Be well, my son. Until next time."

The surprise vanished in an instant, and Garret returned the hug in earnest. "You too, old man."

With an awkward tap on their respective backs, they pulled away. Someone called from the boat—they were getting ready to depart. Elsa bowed one last time and climbed aboard. Garret followed in her steps, leaving his father on the dock.

"Garret…" he heard his voice call.

"Yes?"

Alastair stood proudly, a hand over his heart and a giant smile over his face. " _Where in soft purple hue, the highland hills we view_ …"

His mother's song exploded in his ears. Her image passed before his eyes, her statues, her smile, her soft hands on his cheek, the warm feeling in her arms, the words of her song, beautiful and sad, driving him to the verge of tears once more. He chuckled, shook his head. Of course, he knew it by heart too.

" _And the moon coming out in the gloaming."_

* * *

Elsa opened the door and lightly stepped outside. She had missed her ice dress and her braid—wearing them back felt comfortable. Around her, the sea was buzzing with its dormant strength, its palpitating pulse steady and peaceful.

Garret leaned on the railing on the far end of the vessel, quietly observing the horizon. England was already a few days of sailing away—he had been uncharacteristically quiet during that time.

She walked, crossing the main deck with a few greetings to the crew and joined him, letting her arms rest at his right.

"Any cocoa trees sprouting up?" she said.

"I thought I saw one earlier. The guys called me crazy." They shared a laugh and a comfortable silence for a minute. "Thank you, Excellency."

"For what?"

"For everything. Because of you, I know I can heal. I know I _will_ heal. I know what I need. I know what it's going to take."

"What will it take?"

He clasped his hands in his back and deeply inhaled. "Time."

Elsa let her head rest over the palm of her hand and smiled gently. "You have all the time in the world, now," she said.

"Does that mean I get extra-vacations as Lieutenant?"

She scoffed. "I didn't say that."

"Eh, worth a shot," he said with a shrug. Garret steadily gazed far ahead, letting the marine breeze that traversed the boat gently play with his hair. Elsa realized he'd never looked this… peaceful, at least when awake. "Today, I am who I am. With all my faults and my mistakes."

Elsa smiled softly. He had it. "Maybe you did a mistake yesterday, but you're still you. Tomorrow, you might be a tiny bit wiser and that will be you too."

"You know, there's something I've been dying to say for a while now," he added, his smile not diminishing in the slightest.

That was curious. Was it something he forgot at the port? It was a bit late for that.

"What is it?"

"It's something I couldn't say before. Something I think deserves more ceremonious circumstances, but I just can't hold it in anymore."

That was _very_ curious. What was he thinking about?

"I'm listening," she said.

He lifted his hands and took a long breath.

"HERE I STAAAA—"

Her hands flew to his mouth in a frenzied panic. The entire crew was now looking at them with giant confused eyes, prompting her to throw an awkward laugh and Garret to cheerfully wave.

"Hoyodoin, maytes? Doyolikedelightofday?"

"Please, stop it!" Elsa hissed between her teeth.

He lifted his hands. "Aww wight."

She let go, still carefully eyeing him for any suspect signal. Though she was trying to look as mad as she could, that big stupid grin was making it very difficult not to smile back.

"I do have a question, though," Garret said.

"I swear to the spirits…"

"It's a serious one, I promise."

"Hmm. Shoot away."

"Is it… Is it ever easy?"

Elsa turned back to the sea. Only Anna had given her an answer. And it was such a perfect answer that she couldn't do anything but tell him exactly was she had heard.

"No, it doesn't. But, little by little, if you work on it, do your best, keep trying, keep believing… At some point, it'll feel like second nature. It doesn't become easy, you become better at it."

Garret released a strange sound—a mix of a sigh and a chuckle. "Long days ahead, huh?"

"Long, but hopefully beautiful."

"Sounds good to me. I may need a bit of support."

Why did have to specify that? He must have known she wouldn't let him down. "I'll be with you. I have a feeling Anna will too."

The weight of his right arm gently fell over her shoulders. "Sorry about this," he said slyly.

"What do you…"

Before she could feel embarrassed by the sudden contact, the amount of pressure gradually increased, and she noticed a very faint sparkling powder over the water. Was she turning sick? She thought she hadn't been…

Then, she understood.

He meant _physical_ support.

Her eyes followed the trail of shiny dust, tracing back to her left side just under Garret. The specks of crystal were subliming ice. The left leg of his pant flowed freely, waving under the oceanic breeze, while his shoe rested on the ground, empty.

His prosthesis had vanished. She raised disbelieving eyes to his face; he looked at her with an eyebrow raised and a proud cocky grin. If not for the entire crew bustling around, she would have hugged him right then and there.

"That's…That's…"

"A first step."

Elsa laughed lightly, wiping the budding tears off her eyes. "You couldn't have waited for us to reach Arendelle before? Now I have to lift you wherever you go."

"Wow, way to ruin the moment, majesty. I can create one if I want, but now that you said that I'm going to be the laziest slug ever."

"Let's not change good habits." The itch to hug him became too important, but she really couldn't indulge it. Not in public, at least. Instead of bringing him into both her arms, she settled for one going around his back. She gave him a light squeeze and rested her head atop his right shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Garret."

"Thank you."

The horizon seemed to be stitched with a silver line. She heard a metronomic murmur. The waves were merely snoozing, sluggish and slumbering in their liquid robes. They dribbled up to the ship, then shuddered and drizzled their sea spray onto its sides, whisking the wood before pulling back. A current of cold electricity passed through the air. The wind whipped up. The sea simmered. Elsa shivered.

And one question that she'd wanted to ask him for a while came to her.

"You never told me…Why did you come to Arendelle in the first place?"

Garret merely snorted in response. "You wouldn't believe me."

"We're two people who can use ice to read memories. I may surprise you with what I'm ready to believe."

He scanned her face, the green of his eyes shining like it never did before.

"I heard a call."

THE END

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: That. Is. It.
> 
> Phew. What a ride. I'm both happy and exhausted. I loved writing this mess, I had so much fun. This is not the end end, there is still an epilogue chapter coming up, look forward to that one in a few weeks. But this is the story I wanted to get out of my system.
> 
> There are a few references to movies, games, and books in this one, hope you'll like them!
> 
> As I already said, there's a second arc planned, I'll take a break and get on it shortly! I have already decided on a title: Passion and Trial. My interpretation of FII, with pretty significant changes. Hope it gets you excited. It will be posted directly on this story as a second book, you'll be notified when it releases.
> 
> Thank you to all for sticking with this story even after the long hiatus, thank you to the almost 100 (!) followers, I still can't believe we are that many! Thank you for all your amazing reviews, you kept me going! Any thoughts you want to share with me are, as always, very welcome!
> 
> So, for the epilogue's theme, there's a special case. There are two versions of the same song that I feel can both do the job. Mo Ghile Mear is the title.
> 
> The live version by Celtic Woman (with 2.5M views) is the one I had in mind while coming up with the events and I feel corresponds the most to the chapter-it also sounds the most like a Disney song-but I also liked the version by Orla Fallon. Both are on YouTube, you can choose whichever you want or even listen to both!
> 
> That is it for now, I love you all!
> 
> Peace,  
> CalAm.


	18. Home

"Where are we going exactly?"

"If you didn't recognize it, I'm not telling ya."

It hadn’t been long since they’d left Arendelle’s limits. The satin glowy snow around them glistened with the spark of the afternoon sun—the trees bent under the powder's accumulated weight as if bowing to greet the small group that traversed the wood with light steps, the path clearing before them by resonant white magic. The no-less white noise of crunching boots and mountain breezes melded together to form an idyllic picture, only disturbed by Elsa and Anna's vigorous discussion.

Their surroundings smelled of tree sap and frozen leaves, tickling Elsa’s nostrils with their light perfume.

"I very much recognize the North Mountain's path. I still don't see where we're going. Is it my castle?" she asked.

"Kinda."

" _Kinda_ is not an answer to my question, Anna. Today is a workday, _kinda_ is not what I want to hear."

The young princess crossed her arms. "It's your birthday tomorrow. Today is _definitely_ not a workday."

"How is it not? My birthday is tomorrow," Elsa said, her eyebrow lifted in anticipation of Anna's answer.

"That's how I work."

"And that's how I don't, apparently."

"Come on," Anna huffed, letting her arms sag. "We already discussed this. The kingdom can take care of itself for one afternoon. It'll be fun, I promise."

It seemed she had been planning it for a while. With Kristoff, Sven and Olaf in tow, Anna had fetched her for what she described as _a matter of utmostly utmost urgency._ Elsa knew Anna wouldn't have taken her on a trip on a whim. Her sister was many things with her, but certainly not careless.

"It better be. But I have to ask, just to be sure—you know it's not there anymore, right? My castle?"

Anna dropped her head, keeping eye-contact with Elsa. "Oh, that was cheeky. I know it's not. That's precisely why we're going. To rebuild it!"

Elsa carefully squashed her surprise.

_Does she know why?_

" _We_? Did you hide your ice powers from me all this time, Anna?"

"Not really, I'd very much like fire powers though," she said, lifting a finger to tap her chin at a steady tempo. "But okay. _You_ will build it back, and Kristoff and I will watch with very supportive cheers."

Elsa walked a bit closer. "And the idea came to you because…"

"I wish," Anna answered with a quick chuckle. "This is Garret's idea."

"Was it?"

It shouldn't have surprised her. He was the only one who had seen her build it, even if it was just in a memory. He was the only one who knew how important to her it was—how its loss still haunted her as much as seeing Jürden’s grandchildren. It had been a thought she came back to a lot more often than she'd willingly admit. And even if, somehow, someone else came to know, she felt that he would still be the only one to understand.

That night, she had made a mistake. One that filled her with both awe and apprehension. She had explored her powers, but far from everyone.

And only he could know that her castle was a testament of who she was, what her entire country had gone through to reach the peace they now relished.

The sentiment filled her with a sensation she'd discovered just a year prior—a warmth spread through her chest, enveloping her in the delicate touch of a fuzzy blanket. Sometimes, that warmth would even reach her cheeks.

She tried to keep her grin in check. She couldn’t let Anna see it. She’d never hear the end of it otherwise.

"Yup yup. He said it wa—Can I please ask you why you didn't make that silly face when you thought the idea was mine?"

She had seen it.

"What silly face?"

Anna stepped even closer, now almost nose to nose with Elsa as she walked backwards. Her right hand perched on her hip while her left indicated Elsa's face and her eyes scanned every square inch of her expression. "That one."

"I'm not doing anything."

Elsa needed a distraction. She clasped her hands behind her and whispered to her ice, summoning it with a hushed command and a small gesture of her finger to sneak under Anna’s thick fur coat, between her hair and her skin.

"No, you're def—AH! Did you… Did you just tickle me?"

This time Elsa didn’t bother hiding her grin. "I don't see how I could do that. My magic is ice, not distance tickling."

"That's cold, even for you. Nevermind. So, he said it was important to you, but he really couldn't tell why. I believed him for once.” She played with her fingers, her swollen cheeks proving her intense thinking. “Wait, maybe he played a prank on me. Did he play a prank on me? Do you actually hate this? Please tell me you don't hate this…"

That same warmth again. Seeing Anna worry about something that was probably trivial to her, but might hold some significance for their family, was one of many reasons she adored her sister.

"I don't, Anna. Don't worry. I don't think Garret would be the type to play a prank on you anyway."

"I wouldn't be so sure. He did pull a few new tricks during the last training sessions. Did you really have to teach him to use his ice like that?"

He had made some very respectable progress in the past few months—though he was still far from Elsa's own level if she was honest. He had been adamant to learn sculpture before anything else; he had promised someone he would.

"I just showed him the way. He's teaching himself now."

"Uh-huh."

Anna brought her arms behind her neck and lifted her eyes to the clear-blue skies, Elsa imitating her a few seconds later. The dance of creamy clouds and calm winds stirred a familiar feeling—a fleeting longing that was always there but never really. Like on the boat, and when she'd look sometimes upon the fjord. Something that she knew was there but could never point out. 

Was it a call? Her powers had been _behaving_ for the last few weeks.

Anna's voice dragged her back to earth.

"It _is_ important to you, then?"

"Yes, very. In a way that is very difficult to express with words, and I think that's why he didn't want to talk about it."

"So, an ice-magic-people thing?" Anna asked.

"You could say that."

"That's the only club you're in and I'm not. I'm gonna start feeling jealous."

"That makes up for all the clubs _you're_ in and _I'm_ not."

"Like wha—"

Elsa started counting on her fingers. "Sewing, baking, reading, chocolate-tasting—this one hurts a lot, doll making, gardening… Should I continue? Do you have anything to say?"

Anna opened her mouth, closed it quickly, lifted her index finger and prepared to say something again, changed her mind once more, and finally just sighed. "I, uh… I left the doll-making one? Okay, okay, okay. But I invited you to all of those and you never have time to come."

Elsa covered her own mouth and giggled quietly. "I know, Anna. I'm just teasing you."

"And excuse me, but you're part of the most exclusive club in the world," Anna said, raising her voice and puffing her chest out.

"And what would that be?"

"Anna's Awesome Sisters Club. Guess how many people are in there?"

Elsa pursed her lips in mock reflection. "You'll have to remind me."

"Just one hard-headed ball of cuteness."

"She must be very proud."

"I don't know. I never asked her."

"You should. I think you'd like the answer."

"I don't have to. She shows it to me every day." Anna latched onto her back and tenderly rubbed Elsa's arms with her gloved hands. "I still can't imagine not feeling the cold at all. I'm happy to have you too, by the way."

Elsa leaned into the quick hug. "Thanks, Anna. Just a question, though… If this is Garret's idea, why isn't he coming with us?"

"Oh, he said he'd go ahead, prepare things… I don't really know what he meant but we'll find him there. I think. Probably. I don't know, I'm too excited to think about it now that I know you'll like it! But on that topic…"

Anna pulled back and continued walking by her side, repeatedly knocking her knuckles together like she always did when she was nervous or wanted to raise a touchy subject.

"Why the long face? Did I do something wrong?" Elsa asked, honest worry slithering its way past the cheerfulness of the moment.

"No, no… Do you… Do you intend to do anything about him?" Anna demanded.

"What do you mean?"

Anna sighed to the ground and lifted focused eyes to meet hers. She closed her fist, brought it to her forehead, and made a quick up and down gesture that looked as obscure to Elsa as if she had just started climbing a tree. Seeing that it elicited no reaction, Anna turned around to check if Kristoff was looking—he was busy talking to Olaf and Sven—and fired an imaginary arrow.. She then pointed towards her own heart.

"You know what I mean…" she finally said.

_Oh. Garret._

Elsa suppressed a sigh. She had been _educated—_ as her sister would say—by Anna on some specific aspects during discussions that taught her she had been mostly oblivious to very critical matters. She was acutely aware that her relationship with Garret was different than with everyone else somehow, but never really stopped to question in what way.

"Anna… You know I'm not really—It's not that I don't…" It wasn't for the lack of trying, but Elsa failed to define the nature of her feelings. "It's not a simple matter. Not for me."

Anna was warm. She opened up to anyone willing in a simple way that gave her a knack for social interactions, despite the thirteen years of isolation. She had known for Kristoff in a few days.

Elsa wasn't the same. She wished she was, but her heart didn't lie. She trusted Garret; he was now, without a doubt, as precious to her as Anna or Kristoff were. But did she see him like that? 

Could she see _anyone_ like that?

Anna clicked her tongue. "Okay, I understand that. Just tell me this: do you like him?"

She had asked that question many times before, and Elsa's answer had always been the same.

_As anything more…? I don't know._

Surely sensing the sempiternal response coming back, Anna adapted her strategy. "All right, all right. That's maybe a bit too direct. I'll ask it another way. How does he make you feel?"

That was new. And something she never thought about before. Elsa whimsically glanced at the heavens, rummaging through her own mind to come up with an answer. She reviewed all the time she spent at his side ever since they came back from London.

How he had given her that proud look when appointed Lieutenant—a post he now devotedly occupied; how he had—very awkwardly, as always—tried to learn how to greet her properly; how he tried as much as he could to limit his use of profanity when he was near her; how he didn't try to hide his tired face anymore—sometimes he plunged back into his own mind and he let her see it, help him with it; how he always valued her laughs above his own reputation—and sometimes his own dignity, much to her dismay; how young and sprightly he looked whenever _he_ laughed; how he was always ready to help, anyone and for anything, without expecting any reward; how he had spent many hours on the fjord's shore, making little animals of ice all alone until she came across him that one time and they just sat in a comfortable silence—it had become a tradition of theirs now.

There was one common characteristic to all her memories that involved him—one characteristic that was at that very moment plastered on her lips.

"He makes me smile."

The words felt like a balm over her tongue, smooth and comforting.

Anna beamed up. "Oh! Smile because of what?"

"It depends," Elsa replied with a shrug. "Sometimes he just does something silly, or he tries so very hard to create something with his ice. Sometimes he gets serious, and he frowns a bit too much, so I tell him he looks like a bad guy and he immediately tries to soften up. Other times he goes out of his way to help someone without them knowing and he does that flustered thing with his cheek when he's caught. Just yesterday, I saw him sneaking a few pastries out of the kitchen for the new recruits."

"He does that?"

Elsa smiled fondly, recalling in silence his paralyzed surprise and giant rabbit eyes. "He said he tried not to do it more than once a week, and that he always left a sculpture for payment _._ I think it's a tacit accord: the kitchens know he's the one that takes them _._ He also tried to bribe me with a cookie. The cheek..."

"Did it work?"

"You know I'm incorruptible, Anna."

"I'm sure that little brown stain on _your_ cheek agrees with the sentiment," Anna chided, her eyes narrowed mischievously

Elsa's heart flew to her throat, and her fingers to her face. "It's still there?!"

Anna laughed heartily, and Elsa remembered that she was talking to someone who knew her better than she knew herself. She shrugged her light flush off and squared her shoulders in feigned revolt.

"I get the picture, Elsa… I think you know what I think, so I'm only gonna say this: you look relaxed when you're with him. But this is not about me. I trust you with what you want. If you decide anything, I'm with you all the way, okay? Just… Talk to him about it. You owe each other that," Anna said. "It also helps that he doesn't look half-bad."

"That isn’t very important to me."

"I know, I know. But still. You both earned it."

Her support meant the world to Elsa. She didn't know what to make of the incoherent swirl of sentiments that surged through her, but knowing Anna would be there comforted her like it always did.

She circled her arm around her shoulder in another tight embrace that smelled like home. "You always know the words."

"That's experience for you, Sis'. And on this note, I'm falling a bit behind 'cause Kristoff said I wouldn't be able to convince you to come and now he owes me a thing or two."

"Do I want to know what thing or two?" Elsa asked.

"Er… You probably don't? Kindofa couple thing…"

Elsa gave a sharp shake of her head. "I don't want to hear about that."

"Hehe, thought so." Anna slowed down, allowing herself to come to Kristoff's level. "Watcha doin', big guy?" she whispered in a voice Elsa wished she never heard.

Releasing a giant sigh that sounded a lot more longing than Elsa expected, she faced back ahead, her thoughts flying to the red-headed ice wielder.

Anna was right, as per usual. Elsa was a queen and not a very vocal one at that. As extroverted as he was, it wasn't easy for him either.

_People are complicated. Me most of all._

* * *

They reached the clearing before her castle's resting place without any issue—Elsa knew the road by heart. On-site, Garret's recognizable coat and a headful of deep red hair were peeking over a snow mound the size of her room—he was hunched forward, not far from the precipice, with a rather large white silhouette standing above him and peeping over his shoulder.

"Hey there, G!" Anna greeted in her usual loud and cheerful manner. "Just in case, Marshmallow is right behind you."

Garret waved over his back without getting up or turning around. "Yeah, I'm aware. Wasn't the first time—gave me a darn heart attack. He's been like that for the last few hours, now. Seems to be interested in what I'm doing. He still thinks I'm red, though."

_Few hours?_

"Yes, you're red. But good red, now. Also, a lot more white with it. So, it's okay," Marshmallow bellowed with a wide grin.

Anna walked closer and looked at what Garret was busying himself with. "Speaking of. What have you been up to?"

Elsa followed her with muffled steps. Beyond the white, she could see that Garret had already started working. At his feet was a square of perfectly clear ice over which motifs of spiraling winds mixed with lines straighter than justice. On the other side, beyond the broken frame that overlooked the cliff, sprawling over different layers, another similar block had been raised from soil—it was a lot larger. The chunks were solid as if creating a base for…

_Stairs. He wants to spare me the less exciting parts._

"Oh, nothing much," Garret answered. "Just trying to make this platform look half-decent. And failing miserably, too…"

Anna exchanged a quick look with Elsa and with a grin replied, "Hey, don't get too hard on yourself. This looks pretty nice."

"Heh, thanks. I just hope Elsa likes it."

"Oh, I like it, if I do say so myself."

Garret whirled around his head so fast she was sure he grew dizzy. "Ma—Majesty!" He immediately stood and bowed—there were still a few details to review but it was a lot better than his first attempts.

Elsa waved with a tender smile. "Hello there."

"Hi," Olaf and Kristoff both added from behind her.

For a little while, she could swear Garret's face was burning crimson. "I'm sor—I meant—I shouldn't have called you…"

She chuckled and waved a hand again, maintaining a large smile to alleviate his worries. "It's okay, Garret."

"You told me to bring her, and being a very, very polite girl, I brought her," Anna said as she nudged his side with a quick raise of her eyebrows.

" _Not so early,_ " Garret whispered angrily.

Anna shrugged. "It's done now." She then walked away and whistled, examining the frozen basis of what would be Elsa's new castle in mere moments.

Said queen came to Garret's right and peered at his left leg. "How is the new prosthesis?"

Garret exhaled and his shoulders relaxed visibly. "It's working mighty fine, Majesty. Sir Hyelbrön was very meticulous with this one. And your adjustments make for a very nice little touch," he explained as he gave little taps on the snow with his foot.

The very first prosthetic legs he had used had not lasted very long—apparently, magical ice was a much more durable component that had gotten Garret accustomed to using his former frozen leg like he would have one of flesh; a usage that breaks most full-metal limbs. Despite the stronger mix of ice and steel they decided to use, the metallic parts still needed replacements every few weeks.

"I'm happy you like it," she said. She had been glad to help. Elsa turned to the icy platform. "So, you laid the groundwork?"

"Yes, I… I thought you'd want to concentrate on the finer details, and not bother with the hassle of keeping it all together."

"I understand the sentiment. The first stages are a bit more tedious since they must support everything else. I enjoy making them nonetheless."

"Oh. I…"

Elsa immediately sensed the doubts she had instilled in his mind and hurriedly reassured him. "It's not an issue. This only makes it easier. Thank you, Garret." She took a second to breathe the atmosphere in; the crisp mountain air felt lighter and purer than the one a few hundred feet below. The sensation of snow gently coming into contact with her skin, only getting stronger when she unconsciously imbued it with her magic. The sounds of the growing wind, calm but mighty. "I missed this."

Garret crossed his arms and, without a word, observed her, his face bright with relief. "I had a feeling you would. I know that what you lived through here, letting your powers flow… It wasn't _the_ solution, but… The sheer force of it all… It was the start of a journey. I uh, I tried to explain it to Anna, but… I feared it would sound weird."

_He understands._

Elsa put a gentle hand over his forearm and gave it a soft squeeze. "Garret. I know. I was there."

He scoffed in that light way he always did when he realized he was getting a bit too flustered for nothing. "Yes, you were. And now, you have all the space to spread your wings and do it properly."

"That I have. I just feel like I'm missing something."

"Are you? Oh Lord, I should've thought this out bett—"

"No, no, everything you did was perfect. Just come closer," Elsa explained after a quick laugh.

"What?"

She pointed to the ground right next to her. "Come here, please. Just at my side. Right here. It's not for a prank, I swear. There, thank you. Anna? Olaf? Kristoff? Mallow? Can you join us, please? Yes, even you, Sven."

Anna perked up from behind her. "What is it?"

"I don't want to do this alone. This time, I want us all to build it. Together."

Kristoff approached with his eyebrows raised and his left arm lazily hanging off his reindeer's soft fur. "Um, Elsa? You do remember that we weren't born with powers?"

"Garret might help you, but don't assume that for everybody," Olaf muttered as he lay on his saddle atop Sven's back with bored eyes.

Elsa rolled her own. "I knooow. You'll guide us. This isn't my castle anymore—not _only_ my castle, at least. It's ours. So, tell me, what should we start with?"

Olaf's eyes shone brighter and he jumped to the ground. "For real?"

Anna crossed her arms. "You sure about that? I'm going to ask you to make some weird stuff."

Elsa's voice dropped an octave. "I know… I'm prepared for it."

Seeing the predatory grins that appeared on everyone's face, maybe it wasn't so good an idea after all.

"Oh, I want suits of armor everywhere!"

"Sven says he wants his own room."

"And I want a pool. Inside a pool."

_Of course._

Elsa glanced at Garret. He was evidently trying his best to stifle that laugh. She smiled wistfully, shook her head and straightened her back.

"Okay. Let's make a list first."

* * *

"That went a lot better than I thought it would. I never thought Elsa would agree to half the things I said."

"I know, right? I still can't believe there's a giant ice carrot suspended over the hall."

"Or that you tried to eat it."

"I had to see if it would taste the same."

"It's _ice_ , Olaf."

"Exactly! Ice and carrots? That's Kristoff's two favorite things in one!"

The small group took their time on the trip home. Building the castle had taken the entire afternoon; ochre curtains and dark veils ate away at the vivid blue that disappeared under the insolent sparkle of a thousand stars, letting the forest bask in the final lights of the day.

Elsa walked in silence, Garret striding at her side. They both watched in quiet amusement as Anna, Kristoff and Olaf gushed about their new collective creation.

"They liked it," Garret said.

"Yes. We catered to their most wacky ideas; they used every single ounce of their imagination."

"They're a good bunch."

"And an _exhausting_ one, but yes."

Garret chuckled. "I might believe your exasperation if it wasn't for that giant smile."

"That's because I'm not exasperated. I'm elated," Elsa explained.

"You are?"

_How could I not be?_

Elsa shrugged, sending her French braid to her back. "I got the opportunity to share one of the two best aspects of my life with the other. Of course, I am."

"I'm… I'm glad," Garret said, his eyes glued to the faint glow of the crescent moon above.

"Anna told me this was your idea."

His gaze immediately snapped to her, then to the ground. "Oh… Yes, umm… Well, she wanted to do something special, and since tomorrow is going to tangle you in official celebrations and all…"

Her smile couldn't get any bigger. "It was a wonderful moment."

"At your service, Your Majesty. And by the way, I would like to apologize for earlier… Anna doesn't much like formality, so I took the bad habit of referring to you by name whenev—"

"Garret?"

"Y-Yes?"

It was an idea that she had let germinate for a while now, and the almost giddy excitement she felt when she heard him call her _Elsa_ had confirmed it. It wasn't just something that she accepted; it was something that she wanted.

She took a deep breath to steel herself and continued in a voice barely above a whisper. "Whenever it's just us, like this… I would very much like it if you called me by my name."

His blank stare was both endearing and funny. "Are you… Is it really fine?"

"More than fine. I would love you to." Her face fell a little when she repeated that sentence in her head. "I mean—I would love if you—It would be lovely—" She paused and brought a hand to her temple. "I'm making a fool of myself, aren't I? Point is, it would bring me great joy."

He gave her a bright smile, not dwelling on her stuttering a single second. "Message received, Your Ma—I mean, Elsa."

That same quick surge of contentment flowed through her veins like liquid fire. It felt good. It felt _right._

"Speaking of calling someone—I heard you have a new nickname?"

His smile immediately gave way to a more bashful half-grin that told her everything she needed to know. "Oh, er. Yeah..."

"I knew it! Einar wouldn't stop sighing about it. What is it?"

"It's not very... I mean it's not... The little ones gave it to me, and it's not very—I wanted it to be Winter Soldier!"

"They didn't like it?" she asked. Garret shook his head. "And that's because...?"

"My hair isn't long enough apparently?" he said, his voice a tiny pitch higher in confusion. "How does that make sense?"

Elsa shared his sentiment. "Wait, that's it?"

"I also heard some muttering about it feeling too serious for a guy who's missing a limb..."

"Too bad, it quite corresponded. You _are_ a soldier with winter-like powers… What did they choose instead?"

Garret stayed mute and gazed far ahead. He then coughed and spoke, "Promise not to laugh."

"Er…Promise."

He arched a single eyebrow. "That wasn't very confident."

"My promises are confident! In their own way…"

"Nah, It's not enough. What do I get if you laugh?"

"An official apology from the mighty Snow Queen of Arendelle wouldn't suffice? Entire countries would beg for that."

"Not if she just asked me to call her by her name. _Elsa._ "

She sighed. "Already using that against me, are you? Fine. You will receive the reward you ask for. Be it a whole month off or a room at the castle."

"I accept these terms."

"What is it, then?"

Garret cleared his throat and spoke so low she wondered if he was actually saying anything. "…guin."

"I couldn't hear that, Garret."

He squared his shoulders and tried to appear as proud as he could. "Penguin."

Elsa barely managed to contain the burst of laughter. With that dark coat and white shirt, the resemblance was indeed uncanny. The laughter caught up in her throat and almost knocked the wind out of her, as vicious and sudden as a punch to the gut. She almost doubled over, clutching her gut as her body continued to shake. At his intense glare, she tried as much as she could to transform it into a convincing cough.

"I'm not laughing," she tentatively explained.

He didn't look very convinced. He walked closer, eyeing her with a daring sparkle in his glance.

"I'm not!"

He blinked repeatedly. She couldn't fathom how _he_ managed to appear completely unaffected.

"I'm rea—hum. I'm really not."

Now he was simply gazing at her intensely, both his brows cocked.

"Please. Don't look at me with those big eyes."

"Lips are twitching."

"C-Cold."

He leaned back, his eyes wide with mock surprise, "That's the best you could find? Telling _me_ that _you_ feel the cold?"

_Very cunning there, Elsa..._

"Not the easiest information to believe, I agree."

"Uh-huh. What if I do this?" He opened his hand before her, unveiling a little statue of a penguin with a top hat waddling about his palm. She inadvertently let a single squeal escape, and sealed her lips shut in a flushed hurry. "Was that a chuckle? I think I heard a chuckle."

She couldn't lose. Not after all the effort she poured into it.

"You're—hum. You're mistaken. I'm tired and breathe a bit too loud. I apologize for that."

"Not even a giggle?" He leaned over, studying her face up close. He finally relented, releasing a semi-frustrated grunt. "Fine. You didn't laugh. I won't ask what I was going to ask."

Elsa could now let her shoulders loosen up and breathe normally. "What were you going to ask for?"

"You lost that opportunity by not laughing, I'm afraid. You'll see soon enough anyway."

That last bit intrigued her, but she knew he wouldn't budge on that now that he was set on it. She would have to wait. However, something about the way he looked at her seemed off. He didn't appear half as flustered as he usually was. She mentally went over their exchange with furrowed brows, reaching the only possible conclusion.

"That wasn't your nickname at all, was it?"

His grin broadened and he readjusted his coat over his shoulders. "Not really. But I like to see you smile."

The heat went to her cheeks and she tried her best to ignore it. "I can't understand how you lie so well. Are you really the man you pretend to be?"

"You only think I'm good at lying because you're somehow worse at it than I am. No offense."

He wasn't wrong. Anna had told her Garret was a terrible liar. And she didn't need anyone to tell her how unconvincing she was. "None taken. And, appropriately, I've seen you smile a lot more these last months."

He looked ahead, the shine of the moon's ethereal nimbus breaking through the thick cover of snow above them and illuminating his face. "I do, don't I? Well, I do have reasons to."

She didn't have to ask which. She knew them all. Elsa loved the sincerity that oozed through his tone. Politics were a game of appearances, and even if everyone around her was agreeable enough when meeting ambassadors and representatives, she sometimes found herself missing the gentle tremor that true happiness provoked in one's voice.

The one she could hear when playing with Anna, when taking care of Sven with Kristoff, when giving Olaf his own thundercloud, when visiting Arendelle, when talking to Garret.

She wondered if they could hear it in her voice as well.

Her hand came to rest over her heart. It had sped up without any reason. It was a funny sensation that she was becoming all too familiar with.

"It's Gerda's cookies, right?" she asked, absent-minded fingers playing with a single strand of her hair.

Garret brought a hand to his forehead. " _How does she make those?_ They look like regular cookies but they're… there's so much—"

"—chocolate. They are to die for indeed."

"And no reason to live if you have nothing to die for."

They shared a laugh, and something tugged at her heart. A new sensation. Both a weight and a relief. She looked at him once more, drinking in the sight and sound of the laugh she had come to cherish. It was silly, but she didn't care.

"Thank you."

For the castle. For the various teas. For the games and the statues. For the light he added to her home. For his smiles and her laughs. For coming to Arendelle and choosing to stay. For choosing to heal and giving himself the tools to do so.

_Thank you for being here._

He studied her for a minute, her mind drowning in the warm glint of his green eyes. "My pleasure, Elsa."

* * *

Anna sidestepped the dancing couples like an expert tracker. Elsa was finally alone—no diplomat to be seen. The New Year’s party had been extraordinary, but the official reception that followed had been too _official_ for her. She needed some time with her sister.

She observed Elsa as she strode closer, noticing her hand unconsciously stroking her hair and her gaze trailing far into the crowd. A quick peep told her what—or rather, who—she was very discreetly spying on and Anna’s heart melted.

She faced forward again and with a few _sorries_ and _pardon mes_ managed to slither her way out of the crowd.

"Tired of their big words?" she asked when she came up to her sister on the platform, the light that returned to Elsa's face making it very hard not to take her into her arms.

"I must admit they get repetitive, but today is a festive day." She swept the grand hall, letting out a satisfied sigh. "I'm growing fond of parties."

Anna chuckled. Parties were awesome and it was nice to see Elsa appreciate them for what they were—times of fun and relaxation.

But there were also other things she was growing fond of.

"Did the books tell you anything?"

They both quickly bowed to another dignitary before Elsa turned back to her. "What books?"

"I go to the library as often as you do, Elsa… And this last week, I saw a few _interesting_ books were missing." Anna couldn't prevent a sly smile from grazing her lips. "Did _Arrogance and Animosity_ hold any special teachings? Or maybe _Fluttering Hearts_ did?"

Anna didn't need her to say anything—the light blush that appeared on her cheeks was all she wanted to see. But her sister's eyes were not alert, they darted pretty much everywhere; the fog in her mind was still blurry.

"I don't think I've learned anything. I feel as lost as before."

_Had a feeling._

Anna put a delicate hand on her shoulder and softly squeezed. "Hey, don't press things. Only when you feel comfortable." There was so much she wanted to do to ease the turmoil in Elsa's head. So much she wished she could do, but for once, it was an issue she had no agency on.

The voice of her own beau called to her from the middle of the busy dancefloor. Kristoff appeared in front of them, severely underdressed like he always was but with a huge grin on his face. Was that dirt on his boots?

_Where did he go again?_

"Anna? You promised you'd give me this one."

"Yes, I'm coming Kristoff!" She turned to Elsa and took her left hand into hers, the delicate fingers of Arendelle's queen closing lightly over it. "You'll be okay?"

"Yes, I will. Go ahead," Elsa comforted with a nod. That looked a lot better. The smile helped. She could go for a few minutes.

Anna planted a kiss on her cheek and jumped down, Kristoff's hand guiding hers into the crowd while her mind stayed with Elsa's heart.

* * *

Elsa scanned the ongoing festivities for another glimpse of that elusive tuft of red hair. Her hand came to her heart unwillingly—it always sped up when she thought about him since rebuilding their ice castle.

The books hadn't really helped—that much was true. Elsa didn't understand half of what happened in those stories. But what she had clearly read were the intertwined fates of two _fulfilled_ people. She didn't know about Garret, but a nagging at the back of her mind murmured that she quite hadn't quite reached that fulfillment.

Her eyes scanned the grand hall once more, hoping to catch him. Instead, it was her left ear that found him.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty. There's a… cockroach that we… um, will need your help neutralizing."

She contained a yelp of surprise, whirling to face a wincing Garret. They both glanced around, but nobody was paying much attention to them.

"Sorry…" Garret said immediately.

"No issue. Is that serious?"

"Er… Pretty much?"

Elsa squared her shoulders. "I'm coming."

She followed him, swimming in his wake as he cut through the dense mass of swirling dresses and clicking heels. His large silhouette provided enough cover from any prying eyes, but her dress wasn't exactly stealthy. They finally reached the southmost door, slipping out in a synchronous step before closing the heavy gate.

Elsa immediately crossed her arms. "Very elegant, Garret. But I think no one saw us."

By pure luck. The burning hearth fire in her cheeks was not going to die out anytime soon.

Garret dusted his Lieutenant uniform. It had already been a few months of seeing him wear it almost daily, but she couldn't get used to how tight it seemed to press against him. Wasn't it uncomfortable?

"I couldn't just walk up to you and take your hand. That would have looked weird."

"So, you thought a cockroach would seem less strange? When you're the one who hears voices?"

" _Heard._ And I'm more and more convinced it was your voice I listened to that night, Elsa. The timelines match up."

Garret's call had stayed a mystery to them both. On one hand, she was sure she hadn't sent anything, but her powers were still bigger than her. On the other, he was sure he heard a feminine voice coming from the North but unfortunately, it had been a singular occurrence that hadn't repeated itself.

"Anyway. Please follow me, I have something to show you," he continued.

"Where are we going?" She recognized the path but still asked. He only answered with a mysterious wink. He opened one last door for her to go through, and Elsa found herself in the birch garden. Where they had first met properly, and where they had truly first shared their burdens. "Why did you bring me here?"

He flashed his characteristic cocky grin. "Told you. I wanted to show you something. Or rather, have you hear something." They walked until they were a couple of feet away from the little pond at the garden's center. "You told me you didn't like to dance because you don't like eyes on you…"

"That is correct."

"And you've only ever heard Norse music in here."

"Uh-huh."

"Here's what I thought… Why don't we try something else? Something you've never heard before. And away from everyone. Can that change your mind?"

Before she had time to process anything, the notes of a mellow carryon echoed from above. Then a voice pitched up, sending a lyrical vocalization all around. Elsa searched her surroundings; the only light came from a balcony on the east side of the castle. Garret walked closer to her and bowed low.

"They're on the upper level and facing away," he explained as he stood straight, his smile a lot softer. "Nobody can watch what happens here unless we see them too. And I made sure no one would be compelled to come."

"What are you planning?" Elsa asked with a raised eyebrow.

At that, the first words of a foreign song resounded, slow and steady. Several taps of piano keys elevated the ends of the lyrics like musical punctuation; Elsa could almost discern a meaning, even though the tongue she did not understand.

Garret started swaying ever so slightly, his hands guiding his hips left and right like a perfectly balanced and rhythmic pendulum. Soon after, his hands flew to his sides and grabbed at the hem of his cape as he deftly started to hop on his spot in sync with the joyful melody.

"You see, there's this folkloric tale I brought back with me from London…" he said. "A simple song, to be fair, but very catchy. The orchestra took a few weeks to learn and master it. I hope."

"It's from your home? Your mother's song?" Elsa asked, observing his steps with silent curiosity—and just a tinge of amusement.

"Not really, but they share a language."

"And why all this?"

"Because you always look like you're dying to join everyone for a dance."

The tempo picked up in a burst of alto and drums; the notes sounded almost mythical flowing out into the open sky while the waves of sublime verses and unknown words joined the twinkle of the stars that had created them.

Garret accompanied every pause, every cord, every pipe with some sort of movement. He glided on the humid and snowy blades of grass in an almost ghostly stride, his jumps landing with little more than barely audible plops like a wolf on the hunt. His eyes, though, never left hers.

"Garret, you look silly."

She had said that, but she was the one playing with her fingers.

"Things are only silly because you decide they are, Elsa." He smiled once more. "No one's watching."

Her heart raced again, and her feet started tapping against the ground.

 _You are,_ she thought. _But you don't really count._

If there was anyone to do this with, she was watching him.

Elsa threw one final cautious look around her. Garret had been right: if anyone could see her, she could see them too—his confident grin was a guarantee that no one would spy on her.

An unexplainable impulse flowed through her. She could at least try.

Her first moves were the dancing equivalent of stammering. She felt awkward when making her small hesitant tiptoes, when taking a right turn whenever she guessed she had to, when keeping her fingers clawed together, when tugging at the borders of her dress so she did not trip over her own feet. A waltz would have been easier to execute—but she found this rhythm a refreshing alternative.

"There you go, that's the spirit!" Garret boomed with delight. He stepped mere inches before her, and she understood.

' _May I?'_

He didn't have to say it, she could see it. She carefully unfolded her hands and let them rest against his. Despite herself, she flashed a rueful smile.

The second they started moving again, the violin's crystalline croon joined the music, and most of her jitters melted in the joint swells of music and pleasure. The steps flowed between them like ragged sighs slipping against a silk pillow—uncertain at first, then more and more intense. His breaths, short and trembling, brushed her hair, and she saw the laughter glitter in his eyes.

The music grew, and so did that euphoric ecstasy in her head. It bloomed and flourished and jumped, and Elsa followed it.

There were a few missteps here and there; he'd miss her hand or she'd almost step on his toes. It wasn't elegant, it wasn't dignified, it wasn't even harmonious. But it was her— _their_ dance.

"There, now try turning around."

He stepped back and let her spin at her leisure, keeping one arm above her to call her back to him with a careful whip just before she could feel dizzy.

Dipping forward and looking into her eyes, his fingers tightened around hers as his left foot came forward, surprising her foot and chasing it back. They stopped, toe to toe, and he pulled her close to him, close enough that she could see her own reflection in his pupils. He then dashed back and bowed ceremoniously as the music stopped with a final lyrical envolée that detonated like a firework.

They watched one another without a single word, their heavy breathing the only sound accompanying the rustling of the branches.

"That was…" she started.

"It was?"

She beamed at him, proud, tired, content and oh so messy.

"…fun. It was fun. I liked it very much."

Looking into the green sparkle of his satisfied eyes, Elsa was brought back to the continuous fast beating in her chest that probably wasn't only due to her dancing.

She shied and stepped backward almost by instinct. Garret had obviously noticed something was amiss, his smile beginning to fade.

"Everything all right?" he asked.

"Garret… I…"

She tried to find the words. She had to. But could she?

She was only going to create problems. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to feel. Escaping through the door was still possible.

_No. I want to say this._

Perhaps it was the chocolate. Or maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through her body from the dance. In all cases, she wasn't going to run. Not from this. Not from him.

"Please, speak your mind."

Garret's voice was deeper, more concerned, but always gentle. His gentleness would always surprise her despite it being one of the most endearing aspects of the man.

She gathered as much of her courage as she could.

"You're well aware, I'm not very at ease when it comes to people. I try to better myself, but it'll take work, patience, and time. However," She clasped her hands above her chest. "There's something. Beyond our ice. Something I discovered with you. I don't know what it is, but I sense it between us. It's there."

Garret slowly nodded, not coming forward, not going backward. For the first time in a while, his expression was unreadable.

"I sense it too."

Something above her stomach lifted. Was it relief? Joy? Sadness? Nevertheless, she had to go on. But she turned away, unable to meet his gaze.

"I…I couldn't…I've made things hard for you, and I fear I'm only going to make them harder. I—"

A calloused but soft finger came to her lips, shushing her. She didn't know how, but in the few fleeting instants she had looked away, he had closed the distance between them. That same finger then slowly drifted to her chin, lifting it tenderly so that she could look him in the eye.

"There's no need to say more, Elsa. Something is holding you back. I'm not the most observant person either, but I see it."

"You do?"

Garret chuckled. "You're surprisingly easy to read when one gets to know you."

_Am I?_

"Yes, you are."

"What?"

Could he read her thoughts? Had he seen anything during the par—

"And now you're playing back the entire evening to see what you may have let on," he added with a quiet laugh. His finger left her chin and she yearned for its touch already. Her face felt bare. "Here's what I say. We'll find out what it is. Together. If you allow us to try, I'm sure we can overcome it."

His left hand brushed a strand of her hair away from her face and cupped her cheek in a soft and fluid movement. Elsa instinctively leaned into his touch, longingly, ardently—the touch that didn't burn, that didn't hurt, that didn't scare. She almost scolded herself when one of her tears met his skin. Her own palms covered the back of his hand and latched onto his wrist feverishly. The sensation was new, a bit unsettling, but not terrifying.

He stared into her eyes with focus, with intensity.

"Let's find what you're missing. I'm not in a hurry."

Those few words took her breath away.

Of course, he would say that.

She shouldn't have doubted.

It was silly of her to doubt.

She stepped closer to him as if trying to decide on something. He watched her as she pulled him to her and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in the crook of his neck. She allowed herself to savor the moment. The weight of his arms around her back, the sensation of her cheek against his skin. It was a lot more awkward than she could have ever imagined, but she liked it.

"I can't…" For the first time in her life, Elsa didn't want to find words. For she didn't have to. "Thank you."

Opening her eyes, she was met with his beautiful smile. "Always."

And Elsa knew.

In a surge of foolishness that was a first for her, she stood slightly taller and sealed his lips with hers, softly, delicately, like butterfly wings, just long enough that she could inhale his scent, feel the small vapor of his skin. She saw that she had nearly missed; a tad on the left and her nose would have bumped against his. The contact lasted for less than a second but allowed her to imprint the feeling of him against her, a subtle touch that lingered even after they parted.

She pulled back and uttered the absolute heaviest breath she ever released, basking in an atmosphere that felt lighter than air.

His blank stare and quick blinking had her suppressing a giggle. Then, the reality of what she had done sunk in like an anchor as her face started burning more than a smith's fire.

"Oh spirits, I don't know what came over me! I'm—I didn't—I'm terribly sorry if that was bad…"

_You're starting to ramble, Elsa._

Garret seemed to snap back to reality with a quick shake of his head followed by an amused smile. "No, not at all. It wasn't bad. Just… unexpected?"

"I—I—I cannot explain what happened—" _You're still rambling, Elsa!_ "I wasn't—I didn't expect it either, and it was—"

She froze when his face approached closer and closer. His hand caressed her hair with smooth strokes before it went to her forehead, the platinum-blonde tips tickling her as he pulled them up. He then leaned in and lightly dropped the most meaningful message he could have dropped on her skin—a message that, like him, filled her with pride, with confidence, with _hope_.

Anna had kissed her on her forehead many times—but none of those kisses had felt like a promise.

Like an oath.

With Garret, she wasn't the woman she was with anybody else. Not a better woman, not a worse woman. Not another Elsa. Just the Elsa that she wanted to be.

She was herself. Bare. Entire. And it wasn't so bad.

"That's one surprise each. We're even," he said cheerfully. "And, Elsa… If you ever need to talk about it, or about anything else... I'm here too."

He wasn't dismissing Anna, but she couldn't hold all the answers. And Elsa didn't want her to.

"I know," she simply replied.

She hadn't even heard the new music start. The smooth ballet of slow trumpets and even slower piano was relaxing. Elsa glanced at his hands, biting her lip as a flash of hesitation passed through.

_We both earned it._

She took Garret's hands in her still trembling own. This time, she would be the one leading the way.

"You still want to dance?" he asked with a suppressed laugh.

Elsa let her head rest against his chest as she guided their steps, the heartbeat she perceived under the layers of clothes as rapid as her own. At least, she wasn't the only one feeling the effects of their dances. She knew the waltz inside and out. He was very evidently not an expert, but his clumsiness wasn't bad enough to impair the flow.

"They're going to start suspecting something if we don't go back," he said, but even she could hear that he didn't mean a word.

She closed her eyes and let her heart speak for once.

"They can wait. I'm not in a hurry either."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Aight. This took a bit longer than expected, but eh.
> 
> I debated for a loooooong time how to advance things between these two. It felt natural to do it this way, so I'm trusting my gut.
> 
> About Passion and Trial: it will be a second book, and published as so in the PaT series. A bit easier to keep track of everything this way. I will start working on it in August, so you can expect a first chapter in early September.
> 
> Cheers to you all and thank you, thank you, thank you for sticking with me. As always, I would be delighted to hear your thoughts, comments are always very much appreciated!
> 
> No theme for next chapter, since there's no next chapter. At least for Arc I. :D
> 
> It has been an honor, and see you soon.
> 
> Peace,
> 
> CalAm.


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